KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — The Selangor police chief maintained today that Aminulrasyid Amzah was a “suspected criminal” when policemen gave chase to the car the 14-year-old was driving before he was shot to death two weeks ago.

Deputy Commissioner Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar also declined to apologise for allegedly tainting the boy’s reputation as demanded by Aminulrasyid’s family yesterday.

Khalid said the very reason why the cops had given chase to the schoolboy on the day of his death was because he was a “suspected criminal”.

“Is it wrong to say that he is a suspected criminal?” he told The Malaysian Insider this morning.

Khalid denied that the police had called Aminulrasyid a “robber” and said the term used was “suspected criminal”.

“We did not say he was a robber. My officers said they acted in such a way because the boys were suspected robbers. That was why they chased them that way. Actually, they did not say suspected robbers... it was suspected criminals,” he clarified.

Khalid also insisted that the police had not acted out of the ordinary by slapping the term “suspected criminals” on the 14-year-old and his friend, Azamuddin Omar, 15, who had also been present during the time of the incident.

Aminulrasyid was gunned down after a 6km car chase on April 26 after he, according to police, allegedly attempted to reverse and ram into them in Section 11, Shah Alam.

Azamuddin later claimed that Aminulrasyid had never tried to endanger the police by ramming into them and alleged that he, too, had been shot at and subsequently assaulted by the cops when he alighted from the vehicle.

The case had sparked public furore with the police receiving flak for being “trigger-happy”.

In a press conference yesterday, Aminulrasyid’s family urged either the Inspector-General of Police, the Home Ministry or Khalid to issue a formal apology for accusing the youth of being a robber.

The accusation, they claimed, tainted Aminulrasyid’s reputation as well as that of his family’s.

“We want an apology to clear his name,” said his uncle, Kamarudin Hassan.

The family and its lawyer, N. Surendran, also demanded for an investigation into Azamuddin’s testimony that he was shot at and beaten by the police.

Surendran said this was tantamount to “attempted murder” and “assault” by the officers.

When asked if the police would open a separate investigation into Azamuddin’s claims, DCP Khalid said: “We will soon give a proper press statement to all the media on that.”

Police corporal Jenain Subi was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code on Monday. He has since posted bail and the court has fixed June 10 for mention.