He first shot five other military personnel, including Lieutenant Colonel Adel Gustinigo, commander of Detachment 81, the counter-terrorist arm of the Indonesian army's elite special forces, as well as a major and captain, and then shot indiscriminately at anyone, while running out of the hangar.
[7] The motive behind the rampage was not immediately known, though it was suggested that Sanurip was suffering from depression and was not in a healthy state, perhaps due to a malaria infection.
[2] It was further reported that an army transporter, carrying two soldiers killed in Mapenduma, made a fuel stop at Timika airport that morning, and that Sanurip began shooting after seeing their remains and realising that one of them was a friend of his, though it was stated by military spokesmen this information was not true and that there was no connection between the arrival of the bodies and the mass murder.
[15] After the decision was made public, Amnesty International uttered concerns, because the court had rejected evidence regarding Sanurip's mental health.
[18] A military tribunal has sentenced to death a soldier who went on a shooting rampage in which he killed 16 people in Irian Jaya last year.