One dead, 2 seriously wounded in multiple stabbing attacks in East Timorese capital

ETLJB 3 November 2013 - Four suspects were arrested in the nation's capital, Dili, and another was being searched for by police, following a stabbing rampage that left one person dead and two seriously wounded. The stabbings occurred on 18 September last in three separate incidents in the suburbs of Kampong Alor, Marconi and Fatuhada.

The victim that died was named as Antonio da Costa Duarte. He was stabbed in neck while he was riding his motorbike and according to members of the local communities, the two perpetrators were riding a a motorbike (Suzuki Satria FU, red). First they stabbed a person in Kampung Alor, then in Marconi and the last is in Fatuhada at around 07: 30 pm. 

The first victim of the stabbings, Agostinho Ximenes, said at 18: 15 he was returning home from a football game and he saw the suspects coming out from the Annur Mosque and when he walked close to the suspects, suddenly, the suspect took out the knife and stabbed his right hand. “I do not know the suspects and can not identify them because it was dark and after they stabbed me, I fell down to the ground.”

The suspects were detained in Dili District Police’s cell. According to Dili District PNTL Commander, Pedro Belo, before comitting the stabbings, the suspects were gathered in Luru Mata in Fauthada and drank alcohol. The person who bought the alcohol for the suspects was also arrested.

According to Commander Pedro Belo, on Tuesday night (18/9), there five people who were in the group that stabbed the victims.  They had been drinking alcohol before the stabbings.

The stabbings of the three youths has made people fearful of going out at nights even though the police pledged to conduct 24-hour patrols. The police commissioner, Longuinhos Monteiro broadcast a message advising people not to go out at night while the police were searching for the rest of the suspects who are believed to be part of a group responsible for several murders in the capital at night. The Commissioner is reported to have referred to "an organized unknown group that continues murdering people in the capital of Dili at night." Sources: Diario 26 September 2013; Independente 26 September 2013; Radio Timor-Leste 26 September 2013; Diario 25 September 2013 via TLMDC Edited by Warren L. Wright