SINGAPORE - Police have identified the man shot dead in the incident at the Shangri-la Hotel as Mohamad Taufik Zahar.
The 34-year-old Singaporean was the driver of the car that crashed through barriers near the hotel early on Sunday where a high-level security summit was taking place, the Singapore Police Force said in a statement early on Monday morning.
The two passengers in the car who were arrested were identified as Mohamed Ismail, 31, and Muhammad Syahid Mohamed Yasin, 26, police said. Both are also Singaporeans.
The former sustained injuries during the incident but was conscious when taken to hospital. Substances believed to be controlled drugs and an item, believed to be a drug-taking utensil, were found on the two men who were arrested, police said. They found no weapons on the three subjects.
At around 4.30am on Sunday at a highly secured checkpoint along Ardmore Park, the three men in a red Subaru Impreza defied orders to allow police to check the boot of the car.
Instead, the 34-year-old driver tried to make a run for it and crashed the car through the barricades. "Despite police warnings to stop, the driver continued to crash through police barricades, endangering the lives of the officers. Police opened fire at the vehicle to stop further danger," a police spokesman said.
The car, which had a single bullet hole in the front windscreen, came to a stop on a grass patch barely 250m from the entrance of the Shangri-La Hotel. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. It was the first time in seven years that police have had to open fire, with the last incident - involving a knife-wielding man who continued to advance on an officer at Outram Park MRT station - occurring in 2008.
Police said the deceased man was wanted for failing to attend court for an offence of criminal intimidation, involvement in drugs and has other criminal records.
Ismail is also wanted for drug related offences and for failing to stop at a roadblock. Both he and Muhammad Syahid Mohamed Yasin have drug related offences and criminal records.
The two men are being investigated by the Central Narcotics Bureau and will be charged in court today for a drug trafficking offence.
Here is the full police update on the incident from the Singapore Police Force Public Affairs Department:
//
Correction note: An earlier version of the story stated the name of man who was shot dead as Mohamed Taufik Zahar instead of Mohamad Taufik Zahar. This has been corrected.
