BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Probers from the Victorias City police station are investigating if the two remaining escapees of the Negros Occidental District Jail (NODJ) have involvement in the murder of a security guard on the evening of July 3 in Hacienda Florencia in the city’s Barangay 18.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Corpuz, city police chief, said 23-year-old Francis Legada was on duty guarding a sugarcane field of a milling company when attacked by unidentified individuals.
According to fellow guards there, Legada managed to call for a backup after he was shot.
Police later arrived and found the victim lifeless. The guard’s 12-gauge service shotgun along with his personal belongings was missing.
Police also recovered two empty cartridges of a .45-caliber pistol at the crime scene.
Corpuz said they find it suspicious that Legada was alone at his guard post in the middle of the sugarcane field that time. Further, the nearest house was at least 400 to 500 meters away from the crime scene.
Police called Legada’s security agency for an explanation. The agency said two guards were deployed that time, although the other may had been on patrol.
Although the police are looking into a possible ordinary robbery case, Corpuz said they are not discounting the possibility that escaped inmates Alejandro Montoya and crime group leader Francisco Epogon may be responsible for the incident. He also noted that Montoya was a resident of the city./PN
