POLICE authorities last Tuesday said they have pinpointed at least four suspects responsible for the killing of a Basilan policeman last September 18.

Police Superintendent Antonio Montalba, deputy police director of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo), said they have the names of the suspects in the killing of Insp. John Rey Lozada of the Basilan Police Station, who was stabbed dead after he chased down a mugger who took the bag of his wife at the Night Café in Divisoria.

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Montalba, however, withheld the names of the four suspects pending their arrest.

“Wala pa nadakpan ang mga suspects pero nailhan na ug duna na kitay mga pangalan,” Montalba said.

Montalba said the four suspects have previous records of arrest.

Lozada, who was visiting the city with his wife, was stabbed dead as he grappled with a lone mugger along Pabayo-Hayes after he chased down the mugger who had gotten the bag of his wife.

Lozada and his wife had eaten in one of the outdoor eateries set up during the Night Cafe.

The mugging happened in spite of the dozens of policemen, barangay tanods, and traffic enforcers deployed by authorities.

The suspect had fled immediately after the incident while the victim was rushed to Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) where he died of his wounds.

The suspect’s knife had pierced Lozada’s heart and lungs.

Police authorities initially released a cartographic sketch of the suspect.

City Police Director Noel Armilla, meanwhile, has vowed to achieve the 70 percent target deployment of personnel for police visibility.

Cocpo is at present still coping with a drop in the number of policemen in the city after the police force was augmented with other police units for the fiesta celebrations.

Armilla said they have had to maximize the city’s more than 700 policemen to fill in the shortage of personnel but this remains below par especially for a highly urbanized city such as Cagayan de Oro.

Just the other week, COCPO had begun to replicate its peace and order drive against suspected criminals in the city where more than 70 persons were arrested during a saturation drive.

At least 60 of the arrested suspects had standing warrants of arrest for different offenses and the suspects are now committed at the Lumbia City Jail, Armilla said.

Armilla said the Cagayan de Oro police’s peace and order campaign will continue until December as part of their pre-Christmas preparation.