The Bar Council today urged the police not to be "too quick on the draw and trigger-happy" when carrying out their duties.

The Council, which represents about 10,000 lawyers, was responding to the killing of a youth who was shot in the head early yesterday morning when he allegedly failed to stop his car and rammed into a police vehicle.

According to press reports today, a four-man police team had trailed the car, which was allegedly driven by the youth in a suspicious manner.

City police Criminal Investigation Department deputy chief ACP Hadi Ho Abdullah was quoted as saying that when the youth realised he was being followed by the police, he reversed his car.

"One of the policemen, who had already got out of the police car, shouted to him to identify himself and ordered him to stop," he said.

The youth was shot in the head by the policeman when he ignored the order and reversed his car into the police vehicle, said ACP Hadi.

Society 'brutalised'

The Bar Council said it regretted the "fatal shooting of yet another member of the public during the course of police investigation".

"From a Bernama report, it appears that the deceased was neither armed nor was he attempting to escape from the police. He may not even have heard the order to stop," said Council president Mah Weng Kwai in a statement.

"It further appears that the policeman did not fire the shot as a warning as the bullet hit the deceased in the head," he said.

Mah added that while lawyers are mindful of the duty of the police to maintain law and order, they must do so without resorting to unnecessary use of violence and thereby "brutalising" society.

"The Malaysian Bar calls on the police authorities to immediately carry out a thorough investigation into this fatal shooting and forward the findings to the courts for an inquest to be held," he said.

655 killed in 10 years

In May 1999, then deputy Home Affairs minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir told Parliament that over the past 10 years, a total of 655 people were killed as a result of being shot by the police. Of the total, 355 were locals.

The deputy minister said that the police could only open fire if their lives were in danger to protect themselves.

Last year, a memorandum prepared by the Police Watch and Human Rights Committee of Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim) claimed that an average 1.3 persons were shot dead by the police every week.

The memorandum, which was handed over to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Inspector-General of Police Norain Mai, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Rais Yatim and then Attorney-General Mohtar Abdullah, called for a royal commission to investigate the high number of fatal shootings.

However, to date, there has been no response from the government towards the memorandum.