{"id":78638,"date":"2018-06-22T16:20:45","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T23:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=78638"},"modified":"2018-06-22T16:20:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-22T23:20:45","slug":"matara-jewellery-theft-shootout-3-arrested-suspects-in-the-icu-with-latest-cctv-foootage-%e0%b6%bb%e0%b6%b1%e0%b7%8a-%e0%b6%b8%e0%b6%82%e0%b6%9a%e0%b7%9c%e0%b6%bd%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%bd%e0%b6%ba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/06\/22\/matara-jewellery-theft-shootout-3-arrested-suspects-in-the-icu-with-latest-cctv-foootage-%e0%b6%bb%e0%b6%b1%e0%b7%8a-%e0%b6%b8%e0%b6%82%e0%b6%9a%e0%b7%9c%e0%b6%bd%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%bd%e0%b6%ba\/","title":{"rendered":"Matara jewellery theft & shootout: 3 arrested suspects in the ICU (with latest CCTV foootage) \u0dbb\u0db1\u0dca \u0db8\u0d82\u0d9a\u0ddc\u0dbd\u0dca\u0dbd\u0dba\u0dda \u0dc3\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dbd\u0dca\u0dbd \u0dc4\u0dd9\u0dc5\u0dd2\u0dc0\u0dd9\u0dba\u0dd2-\u0d85\u0dad\u0dca\u0d85\u0da9\u0d82\u0d9c\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0da7 \u0db4\u0dad\u0dca \u0dc3\u0dd0\u0d9a\u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0db1\u0dca 3\u0d9a\u0dca ICU (\u0db1\u0dc0\u0dad\u0db8 CCTV \u0daf\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dc1\u0db1 \u0dc3\u0db8\u0d9f)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Yusuf Ariff\u00a0Courtesy Adaderana<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Sri Lanka Police said the four suspects arrested so far following the exchange of gunfire between a gang of armed robbers and police officers during a jewellery shop robbery gone awry in broad daylight in Matara, are notorious criminals connected to a number of other crimes.<\/p>\n

Three police officers and two civilians were injured and hospitalised following the shootout outside a jewellery shop in the Matara town, between several armed men wearing helmets who were robbing the store and policemen responding to a witness phone call, at around 10.45am this morning.<\/p>\n

One of the wounded police officers, identified as a Constable by the name of Weerasinghe Gedara Suranga Pradeep Weerasinghe (69532), succumbed to injuries while receiving treatment at the Matara Hospital\u2019s ICU.<\/p>\n

Acting IGP C.D. Wickramaratne has decided to posthumously promote the police officer who died in the line of duty to the rank of Sergeant.<\/p>\n

Two motorcycles used by the suspects, one \u2018Mini-Uzi\u2019 submachine gun, eighteen 9mm bullets and a magazine sound at the scene of the incident have been taken into custody.<\/p>\n

Following a search operation carried out in the vicinity by the police immediately after the gun battle, one of the suspects was caught in the Hunukotuwa area.<\/p>\n

The suspect was identified as Chamara Indrajith Jayasundara, a resident of Maligathenna in Veyangoda.<\/p>\n

He is also the main suspect in the shooting and killing of an individual and injuring four others including a pregnant woman during a musical show at Nittambuwa on April 21, 2018.<\/p>\n

The other three suspects were arrested after they had admitted themselves into the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital with gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n

One of them has been identified as Dharmakeerthi Tharaka Perera Wijesekara a.k.a \u2018Kosgoda Tharaka\u2019, who is a notorious criminal involved in organized crime and wanted by the police in connection with several crimes.<\/p>\n

Police said that he is currently receiving treatment in the ICU of the Karapitiya Hospital.<\/p>\n

Another injured suspect was identified as Dharmakeerthi Maduka Nirmal Perera Wijesekara, the brother of the aforementioned \u2018Kosgoda Tharaka\u2019, while he too is in the intensive car unit of the hospital.<\/p>\n

The other arrested robber is an individual by the name of Irandeniya Athula Kithsiri Kumara, a resident of Dutuwewa.<\/p>\n

In addition to this police have also taken into custody Kosgoda Tharaka\u2019s mother, Agampodi Janaki Priyanthi Soysa, under whose name one of the motorcycles used by the suspects was registered under.<\/p>\n

Police also discovered a locally-manufactured firearm (Galkatas) which uses 9mm bullets inside her home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/27J8wye368A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Yusuf Ariff\u00a0Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka Police said the four suspects arrested so far following the exchange of gunfire between a gang of armed robbers and police officers during a jewellery shop robbery gone awry in broad daylight in Matara, are notorious criminals connected to a number of other crimes. Three police officers and two civilians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}