59-year-old Mr Koh Suay Tee, previously fell to his death after climbing out of a master bedroom window on the seventh floor of an HDB unit during a raid by officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) on 31 November 2021.
The incident happened at Block 47 Jalan Tiga, and his death was ruled a misadventure by State Coroner Adam Nakhoda, who delivered his findings in court on 31 March 2023.
The State Coroner said that there was no evidence that Koh had leapt down from the bedroom window and taken his own life, and that it was likely he used the only chance he had to escape the police by climbing out of the window and taking a very risky step of his own accord, resulting in him falling down.
Koh had been jailed multiple times from 1989 to 2005 for various offences including consumption and trafficking of drugs and was admitted to a drug rehabilitation centre for treatment and placed on supervision programmes many times from 1977 to 2011.
He was diagnosed with opioid dependence by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), and was seen by the National Addictions Management Service in 2016, being admitted into IMH 3 times for drug detoxification.
Death
On 30 November 2021 at about 8 am, Koh brought some heroin to an HDB unit belonging to Ang Boon Lai on the 7th floor, and the two of them packed the drug inside Ang’s room, with the latter recalling that Koh was smoking heroin there at the time.
The CNB’s Special Task Force officers then went to the unit at about 12.30 pm to arrest Ang, arriving at the block shortly before 1 pm.
An officer who was identified as “EE” in court documents, this one of his colleagues “MN” to watch the back of the unit from the ground floor, with the other officers heading to Ang’s home.
EE said that this was standard protocol for CNB raids, where they would deploy one officer at the back of the unit to watch the suspects if they tried to escape by jumping or scaling out of the units, as well as looking out for items that were discarded.
The officers from the Special Task Force team saw that the front door of the unit was open but the main gate was locked, and they identified themselves as CNB officers and asked the inhabitants to open the gate.
Ang then saw Koh going into the master bedroom.
There were also 2 other men inside the unit at the time, Mr Tiew Eng Wan and Mr Lim Poh Eng, who told Officer EE that they didn’t have the key to open the lock.
Ang then went to the gate holding a bunch of keys but refused to give them to Officer EE, before going to the master bedroom only to find that Koh was not there.
Officer MN then heard a loud thud and subsequently saw Koh lying on the ground motionless, before calling an ambulance which reached the scene at about 1.15 pm.
Koh was conveyed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital where he was found with severe traumatic injuries that included features to his skull, and he was subsequently pronounced dead at about 2.25 pm.
The remaining three men inside the unit were arrested and drug exhibits were also found inside the unit.