Cops on the hunt for lone armed robbery suspect caught in viral video

The police have formed an investigative team to track and detain the suspect involved in the armed robbery on Wednesday, which was caught on video and has since gone viral.

"Petaling Jaya district police hereby confirm that we have received a police report regarding an armed robbery in the Ara Damansara area on Wednesday, which has become viral on Facebook.

"An investigation and operation to track the suspect is currently being carried out by the police," Petaling Jaya police district chief Mohd Zaini Che Din said.

The suspect has been identified as a man with eight previous records of criminal convictions, he said.

The viral video shows a Perodua Myvi with two women stopping in front of a boom gate, with a white car stopping behind them a short while later.

A man wielding a parang got out of the white car and approached the driver's side of the Myvi, where he appeared to threaten the woman.

The Myvi then began to inch forward, past the boom gate, when the man ran to the other side of the car, where it appeared that the passenger of the Myvi had run out.

He began slashing at the woman's wrist, to take her bag, and afterwards, is seen chasing after another woman past the boom gate again.

A few moments later, the white car left the scene.

Mohd Zaini said that initial police investigations revealed that the white car had stopped in front of the Myvi at a traffic stop in Ara Damansara, when a man came out of the car wielding a parang.

The woman then drove to a housing area and tried to ask the guards to let her in, but the guards refused as she was not a resident there, he explained.

This was when the incident caught on video happened, he said.

A few hours after that incident, he said, two police officers who were patrolling around the Flat Desaria area spotted a suspicious white Honda Civic and a car chase ensued.

During the car chase, the suspect crashed into two cars, one of them being a patrol car.

"Near the traffic stop... the suspect tried to ram into the patrol car again.

"The driver of the patrol car then fired a shot in the direction of the suspect's car, which hit the windshield of the car.

"However, the suspect managed to escape before abandoning his car," he said.

The police found a parang, a red helmet and several plastic packets containing what is believed to be the drug syabu in the abandoned car, he said.

They believe that this was the same suspects involved in the armed robbery of the two women in Ara Damansara.

The case has been classified as robbery under Section 392 and 397 as well as attempted murder under Section 307 of the Penal Code.

"The police requests the cooperation of all parties not to make any speculations which could interfere in the investigating process.

"We also ask that the public help provide any information that could assist police investigation at any nearby police station," he said.