Sibu businessman and associate shot dead in broad daylight in apparent contract killing

SIBU: A local businessman and his young associate were gunned down in broad daylight at a coffee shop here yesterday by a lone assassin in what appears to be a contract killing.

The victims have been identified as Lau Ngik Yin, 47, and Loh Lik Siong, 21.

The incident happened at 12.15pm at Jalan Pahlawan when Lau, Loh and a female Chinese national were having lunch at the café – the same premises where Lau’s wife was shot dead in 2012 in one of two previous attempts on the businessman’s life.

A man wearing a red, long-sleeved jacket and a motorcycle helmet is said to have casually approached their table before firing four shots – twice at each victim – before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle parked nearby.

State police commissioner Datuk Amer Awal, who issued a statement following the incident, said Lau and Loh were pronounced dead at the scene.

“A taskforce has been set up to probe this incident. It is still too early to reveal any information relating to the investigation at this stage.

“I urge the public not to speculate on the matter and to give the police time and space to carry out a detailed investigation,” he said.

Lau, widely known as Ah Kang, was previously the target of two shooting incidents in 2012 and 2014.

Although Lau survived both attempts on his life, his wife, Law Leh Kuong, died in the November 2012 incident after she was hit in the back of her head by stray pellets fired from a shotgun.

Law was the elder sister of Law Leh Hing, a businessman who was gunned down in a shooting at Brooke Drive here on Jan 11, 2012.

In September 2014, Lau, accompanied by his bodyguards and a friend, were having lunch at a coffee shop at Lorong Pahlawan 7A-4 – roughly 50 metres from the café where he met his end yesterday – when three men pulled up in a car and fired a shotgun at him.

The pellets injured Lau’s left arm and his friend’s ear and cheek.

In 2015, Lau was charged together with a police officer and three others in a Kuala Lumpur magistrates’ court with conspiracy to commit murder.

The then 45-year-old, together with ASP Haris Faddila Hasim, 39; former policemen Mohd Nizam Manshor, 34, and Indra Zaidi Zamani, 32; and Lau’s bodyguard Zainuddin Rosman, 36, were accused of committing the offence at the Westin Hotel at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.

They were accused of conspiring to shoot a 35-year-old businessman, who escaped unhurt, but ended up injuring the latter’s Mongolian girlfriend Nomin Erdene, who was shot in the shoulder and chest but survived.

Lau and the other four accused were, however, acquitted of the charge by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court in July 2016 after the judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case against them.