KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 ― A coroner’s court in Seremban has ruled that the police did not commit a crime when they shot dead three young men in a 2003 shootout in Negri Sembilan.

Local daily The Star reported that Justice Madihah Harullah dismissed yesterday as assumptions without corroborating evidence the claims that the three youths ― T. Katiravan, 25, S. Puvaneswaran, 24, and V. Vikines, 19 ― had surrendered and were kneeling down when they were shot by police officers.

“In a situation where the cops are giving chase, it will not be easy to establish where the bullet will hit a suspect on the run,” Madihah was quoted saying.

“The court also feels that there is nothing unusual that none of the three cops or the patrol car was hit during the shootout,” she said, adding that there was no basis either to the defence’s claims that the youths were shot before their bodies were moved.

The Star reported that five officers in a police patrol car trailed the youths, whom they said were behaving suspiciously, in a Proton Wira in Nilai on October 10, 2003.

The young men reportedly refused to heed the police’s warning to stop and fired several shots during the car chase. When the youths’ car crashed, they fled, two of whom were reportedly still firing at the police.

Three of the officers reportedly gave chase and shot the youths dead a short distance away.

The Bar Council and activists have repeatedly called for the formation of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) amid cases of police shootings and deaths in custody.

The Shah Alam High Court ruled last month in the civil suit by the family of Aminulrasyid Amzah, a 14-year-old who was shot dead in 2010 in a car chase, that then Selangor police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was liable for misfeasance in public office. Khalid, who is currently the Inspector-General of Police, was ordered to pay RM100,000 in damages.