A POLICE officer who was dismissed from service was shot dead in Sitio Lupa, Purok Lower 3, Back Harolds, Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City, around 8 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, 2023.

The victim was identified as Aaron Estarte, 41, a resident of Sitio Care, Purok 8 of the said barangay.

According to Police Staff Sergeant Joel Lamela of the Abellana Police Station 2, Estarte was shot at the back of his head and the bullet exited in his forehead.

Estarte died instantly.

The gunman and his two other companions, who wore black t-shirts, fled after the incident.

The victim’s live-in partner, Roxanne Labra, said in a media interview that Estarte asked her permission to leave for a while to park his motorcycle but did not say that he was going to Purok Lower 3.

Labra and Estarte were living together for two years and had one child.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Janette Rafter, current Deputy City Director for Operation of the Cebu City Police Office, said that Estarte became a policeman in 2010.

His last assignment was in the Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Central Visayas (RMFB 7) in 2017.

However, he was dismissed from service in the same year after being arrested in an anti-illegal drug operation.

In March 2021, he was released from prison and worked as a security guard since then.(BBT, TPT)