Friday, April 14, 2007 Lone gunman behind Sulu Army camp carnage: Esperon
A LONE gunman was responsible for the shooting rampage at an Army patrol base in Sulu province that killed nine soldiers and a civilian, military chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said through the government Infocenter in Zamboanga City.
Quoting initial findings of a military investigation, Esperon also said "no drinking spree and no mauling" preceded the carnage, contrary to some news reports.
Esperon said the incident happened in a house within the compound of the 35th Infantry Battalion patrol base in Silangkan village, Parang town at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
"There is also an indication that the firing started with one man," Esperon told reporters, although he acknowledged investigators have still to determine who the perpetrator is.
He said the civilian killed during the incident, the patrol base's errand boy, was wearing a camouflage top uniform.
"We will leave it at that at the moment. We don't want to speculate and impute on dead soldiers some acts that they might not have committed," he said.
He said two persons who were wounded in the incident have given their statements to investigators from the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command and the counter-terrorism group Joint Task Force Comet.
Esperon said investigators were encountering "difficulties" since the incident happened in "total darkness" during a power outage in the area.
"All the dead were in one house so the witnesses we have are in other bunkers or houses in the compound. So, the difficulty begins there," he said. (PIA)
