Saturday, November 17, 2007 Investigators on Kusaka case get high-tech assist
POLICE in Mandaue City filed last Thursday a complaint for obstruction of justice against the driver of a Japanese national who was shot dead in Barangay Cambaro.
The security guard and two janitors of the Mandaue City Hospital vouched for the claim of a homicide investigator, PO2 Vicente Gila Jr., that after hospital personnel removed the body of Hiroshi Kusaka from his van and rushed to the emergency room, driver Efren Rosales told them to wash the van.
“The washing of the vehicle altered and destroyed the fingerprints of the culprits and other evidence from the van that could have been useful in the investigation,” Gila said in his affidavit.
A computer forensics expert from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s (CIDG) central office has arrived in Cebu to help in the investigation.
CIDG 7 Officer Jose Jorge Corpuz said that PO1 Enrique Burdeos of the CIDG Anti-Transnational Crime Division will help Task Force Kusaka in scrutinizing the files in the slain businessman’s laptop.
Still no suspect
Burdeos demonstrated yesterday afternoon to CIDG 7 operatives and investigators from the Mandaue City police he features of the P1.3-million mobile forensics laptop.
Kusaka’s van stopped for a red light at the corner of G. Ouano and Plaridel Sts. at past 6 a.m. Tuesday. Just then, two men wearing black jackets and helmets approached on a black Enduro motorcycle.
The passenger fired three shots into the van, hitting Kusaka in different parts of his body. Rosales was unharmed.
Opao Police Station Chief Pat Paragatos Padaon said there was no suspect as of yesterday.
Gila said that when he arrived at the Mandaue City Hospital minutes after he received a call about the shooting, he saw the van at the side of the hospital compound. It was already clean. Guard Sherwin Barbieros and janitors Lolito Timbang and Samuel Bitor supported Gila’s report. (AIV/With JST)
