Thursday, May 15, 2008 He fought 3 robbers who boarded his taxi but was outnumbered, overpowered By Allan I. Varquez Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE policeman who fought against three robbers who rode the taxi he was driving died from two gunshot wounds less than an hour after he was attacked in Lapu-Lapu City Tuesday night.
SPO4 Asterio Butron, (not Boltron as reported yesterday) the officer-in-charge of the Police Non-Commissioned Officer Band of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7, fought with the robbers using his 9 mm service pistol.
But he was outnumbered and overpowered, as indicated by evidence recovered from the vehicle, police investigators said.
Acting Lapu-Lapu City Police Director Louie Oppus said Butron’s gunshot wounds were inflicted by two different calibers of firearms.
“Evidence indicate that he was shot using a revolver and a 9 mm pistol,” he told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday. He also said that they now have witnesses who were able to describe the culprits.
The police are now pursuing the angle of robbery as a possible motive in the attack.
Senseless
PRO7 Director Ronald Roderos wants Oppus to use all his resources, including civilian assets, to solve as soon as possible the “senseless” murder of the policeman who he said has been working hard to augment his income in a legal and dignified way.
“This is what is sad about being a policeman. We are under oath to give our lives so others may live and this is PRO 7’s finest, but we are blamed for the death of criminals,” he said, referring to the flak the police has been getting over the vigilante-style killings of suspected criminals.
Butron was shot inside his taxi in a dark area of Maximo Patalinjug Ave. in Lapu-Lapu. His taxi is now with the Homicide Section, which police will keep for further investigation.
Recovered from the crime scene were a deformed slug and an empty shell of the 9 mm pistol bullets and a holster.
At the Mactan Doctors’ Hospital where Butron was taken after the incident, the policeman was still clutching his mobile phone and the magazine of his 9 mm pistol with 13 bullets inside.
Oppus said Butron’s own 9 mm pistol may have been used to shoot him on the cheek. The gunman possibly turned the firearm against him when he struggled with the robber who sat beside him.
Intention
He said that either of the two culprits who were in the backseat shot him again with a revolver apparently to finish him off.
“There was an intention to kill him maybe because the robbers learned that he was a policeman,” Oppus said.
Responding policemen learned that the taxi meter stopped at P145 when the shooting happened, leading investigators to assume that the culprits flagged down the taxi in Cebu City.
Except for Butron’s 9 mm pistol, the robbers did not take money and other belongings from the victim.
Witnesses claimed that after they heard two gunshots inside Butron’s taxi, they saw the policeman jump from his vehicle and flagged down another taxi, which took him to the Mactan Doctor’s Hospital situated some 200 meters from where he was shot. He died minutes later.
The culprits then took another vehicle, which sped towards the first Mactan-Mandaue bridge.
Crime-prone area
The area where the robbery took place is not well lighted and is a crime-prone location. Residents claimed that robbers would either hide in the unfinished four-story building or take another vehicle after divesting their victims of valuables.
Oppus said that based on the initial results of their investigation, robbery is a more likely motive for the attack rather than personal and “agaw armas” angle.
Although Butron had a conflict with a former neighbor in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City, the incident happened five years ago and Butron was exonerated of the criminal charge.
Butron shot his neighbor in the hand sometime in 2003. A case filed against him resulted in his suspension from service, but he won the case in court years later.
He has since transferred to Barangay Gabe in Cordova town.
Butron’s wife, Generosa, said that aside from the argument with their neighbor in Ermita, her husband never quarreled with anyone.
“Kanang akong bana wala mana siyay labad sa ulo. Nagtinarong man gani na ug pangita ug sideline para sa among mga anak (My husband was not difficult to deal with. He was upright and even worked hard to earn additional income to support our children),” she said.
Aside from driving their family-owned taxi whenever he was off-duty, Butron is also the official photographer of the Cebu Institute of Technology Alumni Association.
Roderos said that aside from all the PNP benefits that Butron’s family will receive, his three children will also be given scholarship until they finish college.
“He was a fine young man, but as it is, we are quick to lose the policemen who are good,” he said.
