Johor cop in hot water after allowing civilian friend to hold firearm
JOHOR BARU, Jan 12 — Police will investigate allegations that a man without authorisation held a firearm belonging to an on-duty policeman, who is also his friend, as the incident sparked outrage on social media after the images went viral today.
Seri Alam police chief Superintendent Mohd Sohaimi Ishak said initial investigations found that the photo was taken in front of the Taman Johor Jaya police station here at 2.43am yesterday.
He said that the images then went viral on social media, especially on Twitter through the account handle identified as @evvok.
"Investigators have detected a viral image showing a policeman in uniform smoking a cigarette with a person identified as a civilian who is holding his firearm that was supposed to be under the former’s supervision and care.
"The civilian has been identified as a friend of the policeman and images revealed that he was seen holding the Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine gun," said Mohd Sohaimi in a statement today.
Mohd Sohaimi explained that the policeman was on duty at the guard post of the police station when the photos were taken.
"Investigations found that the policeman is friends with the man holding the firearm and another who took the photo.
"All three are identified as being 25-years-old. It is understood that the purpose of the photo taken was for casual keepsake, but it was uploaded on social media and created attention,” he said.
Mohd Sohaimi said that the action of the policeman allowing a civilian to handle his firearm while on duty is an offence that violates the code of conduct.
He said that it was a dereliction of duty on the policeman’s part and investigation will be carried out by the Seri Alam district police’s integrity, standard and compliance division.
"The case is subject to action under the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993," said Mohd Sohaimi.
