A failed robbery in Boon Lay leads to an intensive, five-day manhunt. Find out how officers brought the perpetrator to justice!
By: Irwan Shah
Hello, Police?
The Police were alerted to an incident at about 4.30pm on 28 July 2018. The man had entered a pawnshop outside Boon Lay MRT Station and demanded that the staff hand over cash and jewellery. When they refused, the perpetrator threw a device that he claimed was a bomb belt on the display counter. He then fled without taking anything.
The pawnshop manager removed the device and flung it at an open space outside the pawnshop. Upon the Police’s arrival, the scene was secured to keep members of the public away from danger.
Officers from the Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) Bomb and Explosive Branch were also swiftly on the scene. Following a thorough examination of the device, they determined that it was a fake that contained only electrical components.
An Island-wide Manhunt Begins
From interviews with the staff and manager of the pawnshop, Investigation Officers (IOs) from the Criminal Investigation Department learnt that the perpetrator was a dark-skinned man with a beard and a moustache. He carried a black backpack and was wearing a pink turban, dark-coloured T-shirt and black jacket.
CCTV footage showed the perpetrator loitering outside the pawnshop at 1.30pm before his attempted robbery. The IOs noticed that the turban was unusually wrapped, suggesting that the perpetrator might not be a Sikh.
A screenshot of the perpetrator was sent to the Police Operations Command Centre (POCC), which coordinated SPF units for an island-wide manhunt. The Police also issued an appeal for information, urging members of the public to come forth should they have any information.
On the Ground
Officers worked tirelessly to trawl through Police Camera (PolCam) footage from the vicinity. Meanwhile, IOs visited shops in the neighbourhood to conduct ground enquiries.
A promising lead came when a resident at a nearby flat made a police report regarding a black backpack that had been found behind a potted plant. The backpack contained clothes and a knife that matched the description given by the pawnshop’s staff.
The IOs suspected that the perpetrator could have changed his clothes to avoid detection. They combed the area in search of other items that might have been discarded by the perpetrator. Their efforts paid off when they found a pink turban in a recycling bin nearby.
Putting Two and Two Together
A Police K-9 dog was activated to track down the perpetrator, but this trail went cold. However, officers from the POCC obtained a new lead from PolCam footage – the perpetrator was seen going up a flight of stairs at a block of flats and coming down minutes later in a different outfit. This confirmed that he’d changed clothes during his escape.
Inside the backpack, the IOs also found a plastic bag from a mini-mart at Kampong Glam. After trawling through CCTV footage from the Kampong Glam area, the perpetrator was finally found and arrested along Muscat Street on 1 August 2018, ending an intensive, five-day manhunt.
Convicted and Sentenced
The perpetrator was identified as a 30-year-old Bangladeshi man named Sheikh Md Razan. He was an immigration offender who’d overstayed and worked at odd jobs before turning to robbery.
Razan had made the fake gun and “bomb belt” by using items such as a metal pipe and toy components. After fleeing the pawnshop empty-handed, he’d changed his clothes and taken four different buses and a taxi to escape. Razan was convicted for attempted armed robbery and other offences, and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment with 18 strokes of the cane.
Explore Our Content
Editor's Pick
