Monday, November 12, 2007
Cops' shootout hurts 2 others
By Jovy S. Taghoy
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
WHAT started as a spat between two groups of men ended in a shootout between two policemen in civilian outfits.
One went to the area to help a brother who claimed he had been mauled, while the other was responding to a call for help.
Because both policemen did not recognize one other, PO1 Luther Jutba Lapinig, 28, of the Regional Intelligence Office (RIO) 7 allegedly fired at PO3 Inocencio Lumayag Jr., a member of the miscellaneous team of the Carbon Police Station.
Lumayag lives on Garfield St. in Barangay Pahina San Nicolas, Cebu City, where the incident happened at 5:45 a.m. yesterday.
Stray bullets, allegedly from Luther’s 9mm service firearm, hit two civilians.
SPO4 Alex Dacua of the Cebu City Police Office Homicide Section identified the victims as Rowel Tanduyan Abarri, 27, a janitor of Sitio Alaska, Mambaling and Dario Ybañez Encarnacion, 43, a plumber, who also lives on Garfield St.
Critical
The slug pierced Abarri’s forehead and tore out through the back of his head. He was rushed to the Cebu City Medical Center and later transferred to the South General Hospital in the City of Naga, Cebu.
Lionedes, Abarri’s cousin, told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview at 5 p.m. yesterday that the victim was in critical condition.
He had to undergo surgery to contain swelling in his brain.
Encarnacion, on the other hand, was hit in the nose and also needed surgery to get the slug out.
Although Lumayag and Luther admitted firing their guns, Homicide Section Chief Mario Monilar still requested both policemen to undergo a paraffin test, which confirms gunpowder residue. Both policemen agreed.
Luther’s firearm and the .38 revolver of Lumayag were also confiscated by the Homicide Section and submitted to ballistics examination.
Who first?
Results will suggest which of these guns fired the slugs recovered at the crime scene and the one embedded in Encarnacion’s nose.
Monilar said that initial investigation by Dacua’s team revealed the incident happened at 5:45 a.m. when Luther arrived in the area.
His brother Donald, 19, asked the policeman to go to Garfield St., saying that two men he couldn’t identify had mauled him. The two were later identified as brothers Jeanne, 24, and Leo Gelig Nanoy, 27.
Donald’s group was attending a neighborhood dance, where they had a few drinks before the alleged mauling.
Instead of pacifying those involved, Luther allegedly watched as Donald and the latter’s companions—Reynan Jutba Espiritu, 18, and Jose Bacal Raga Jr., 18—retaliated and hit Jeanne and Leo.
The beating reportedly knocked Jeanne out.
Just as Luther, his brother and the two other teenagers were about to leave the area, Lumayag arrived.
Investigators have yet to confirm who fired the first shot.
But, Monilar said, the initial information from witnesses suggested it was Luther who did.
Back-up
Lumayag, in an interview, said he went to the area after a neighbor informed him about a “trouble alarm” and the presence of an armed man.
Before proceeding, Lumayag said he asked a relative to call up the police hotline 166 for back-up. And when he arrived, Lumayag said, he introduced himself as a policeman.
Luther, however, allegedly fired twice, prompting Lumayag to fire back.
One of the slugs from Lumayag’s revolver grazed Luther’s butt.
Lumayag said that Luther fired at least three more shots.
Abarri and Encarnacion, who happened to be standing near Lumayag, were hit.
Lumayag said he then chased Luther and his three companions, who ran toward the San Nicolas Police Station.
Lumayag and a team of Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) operatives led by SPO1 Renante Neuda arrested Luther, his brother and the two others inside the police station.
Brother
Monilar said his office will still determine what charges to file against Luther.
As to Luther’s brother, Raga and Espiritu, the police will have to wait for Jeanne and Leo to file a complaint of physical injuries against them.
But two witnesses, who showed up at the Homicide Section yesterday afternoon, said that Raga did not help maul the two brothers.
Reporters tried to talk to Luther to get his side, but the police officer refused to comment.
Donald, in a separate interview, claimed he called up Luther for help after two men took turns in hitting his head and back.
Donald denied his brother allowed him to retaliate against Jeanne and Leo. He admitted, though, that he fought back in the presence of his brother.
He said that Luther tried to pacify the group, but bystanders tried to gang up on them instead.
Crime scene
Donald said the bystanders even tried to grab his brother’s firearm, even if Luther identified himself as a policeman.
That’s why they tried to run away, Donald said.
But at that point, Donald claimed, Lumayag arrived.
Because Lumayag was not in police uniform, Donald said, Luther did not believe it when the former identified himself as a policeman.
Donald claimed it was Lumayag who fired the first shot, and his brother only fired back.
Police investigators and personnel from the Scene of the Crime operations recovered two empty shells from a .38 revolver, four empty shells from a 9mm pistol, one deformed slug, one broken slug jacket and another undetermined slug, turned over by Lumayag.
Pending the filing of charges against Luther and the three other arrested men, they are detained at the Cebu City Police Office stockade inside Camp Sotero Cabahug.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (November 12, 2007 issue)
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