Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Witness tags ‘frat hitman’
A TEENAGE gang member has identified the gunman who attacked him last Sept. 21 as the one who was responsible for drive-by shootings in Cebu City last Oct. 4.
Homicide Section Chief Mario Monilar said the teenager, who has been hiding in a southern Cebu town after escaping from the Sept. 21 shooting, narrated in an affidavit last Friday how he came to identify the gunman.
The teenager is only 16, so his father assisted him in signing the affidavit, Monilar said.
In the affidavit, Peter (not his real name) identified the gunman as a hitman of a fraternity. The gunman was allegedly the same person who shot him at the corner of D.
Jakosalem and Sanciangko Sts. in Barangay Parian last Sept. 21. The gunman missed and instead killed a bystander and injured three others, including Peter’s father.
Peter went into hiding after that.
Last Oct. 19, he and his father met with Monilar at the Homicide Section in relation to the drive-by shootings last Oct. 4 that left three men dead and injured four others.
Through the cartographic sketch of the Oct. 4 gunman, Peter identified him as his attacker.
Peter gave to police the name of the gunman and his fraternity. Monilar requested the media not to name the gunman yet until complaints will be filed against him before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office.
Monilar said the Homicide Section requested the PNP 7 Crime Laboratory to conduct a cross-matching of evidence in the Sept. 21 and the Oct. 4 shootings.
An earlier cross-matching examination conducted by the crime laboratory on the empty shells and slugs in the three back-to-back shootings last Oct. 4 on V. Gullas St., Sanciangko St. and Ascension St. showed that all recovered pieces of evidence came from the same firearm.
The result bolstered the initial findings of the police investigators that the shootings were carried out by one gunman.
In a separate interview, Cebu City Police Director Patrocinio Comendador told reporters that as soon as the result of the cross-matching examination on the Sept. 21 and Oct. 4 shootings comes out, charges will be filed. (JST)
