Police have very strong leads which may soon result in the arrest of suspects involved in the knife attack of a prominent Honiara businessman John Lee on Wednesday morning in Honiara.
Supervising Police Commissioner Juanita Matanga told journalists on Thursday that police have a number of good leads following an investigation that is being carried out on this incident.
“I urged people (witnesses) who were there at that time of the incident to come forward to our Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at Central Police Station to help strengthened the case they are carrying out,” Ms Matanga said.
Ms Matanga said this will also help in the quick arrest of the person involved.
Mr Lee, who owns the Lee Kwok Quen Company was attacked with a knife when he was about to open the gates of his business premises at Point Cruz at 7.30am on Wednesday.
The suspect emerged from a car that was parked nearby and attempted to pull off Mr Lee’s bag before attacking Mr Lee with a knife.
Ms Matanga said, Mr Lee sustained severe injuries to his hands and mouth as a result of the incident.
“His employees took him to the National Referral Hospital.
“I do hope he recover from this incident,” Ms Matanga told journalists.
She said such behavior or attacks on people especially business men should be discouraged.
“This business person employed a lot of Solomon Islanders.”
She added that these types of behavior are not tolerated.
“I urged everyone to work together and report to us such behavior so that we can deal with it.
“In that way, it will help to reduce the number of incidents that continue to come to our attention,” Ms Matanga further added.
An eye-witness, who is also the company’s security guard, told the Solomon Star at the scene on Wednesday said, during the incident a man pulled out a bush knife and cut Mr Lee’s left arm.
“I was at the betel nut market stall behind the fuel station when the robber attacked my boss,” he said.
“When I turned to look at the direction that a struggling sound was coming from, I saw my boss lying on the ground still defending his bag from being taken.
“Realising that it was my boss, I shouted at the robber and run straight towards them.
“That was when he left my boss helplessly on the ground, got into the waiting car and fled the scene.”
The security officer said that it was a silver “Bounty” car and had recorded its number plate which was passed on to the police.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
