In the early morning yesterday (Mar 21), a man wielding a keris, or
dagger, sat on a chair in front of the grille gate of his Clementi
flat and refused to let his wife send their children to school. The
family and tenants living in the flat were eventually evacuated by the SCDF through the bedroom
windows.
She tried to persuade him to out down the dagger, to no avail. As
he pointed the weapon at them, he shouted: "No going out! Cannot go
out!"
The drama was first reported in STOMP last night.
According to The New Paper report today (Mar 22), the wife, 40,
told reporters that her 45-year-old jobless husband had been
speaking incoherently since the night before, and that he was
stressed out because he had to go to court to face a charge the
next day. Her husband has been in and out of jail for drug offences
and petty crime.
The frightened woman then called her mother, and before long, about
20 police officers arrived at the fourth-storey flat at about
7.45am.
When he saw the police officers, the man got more aggressive.
Through a phonecall, the police instructed her to take her kids
into another bedroom and lock themselves in there.
SCDF officers helped the wife, her three children and three tenants
(two Bangladeshis and an Iranian student) escape on ladders placed
at the front and rear bedrooms.
Five hours into the standoff, police eventually decided to cut the
metal front gate of the unit to arrest the man, after he refused to
give up.
The wife told The New Paper that her husband of 16 years, who used
to be a loving husband and doting father, had changed for the worse
after he quit his job at the Turf Club.
The wife has since become the sole breadwinner of the family.
Source:
http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/this_urban_jungle/584030/keriswielding_man_refuses_to_let_wife_and_kids_leave_flat.html
