[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Murcia shootout kills 2 civilians, hurts cop’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY CYRUS GARDE
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
BACOLOD City – Two armed civilians were killed while a policeman was wounded in a shootout in Hacienda Jesusa I, Barangay Alegria, Murcia, Negros Occidental around 5 a.m. yesterday.
Angelic Tayos, a native of Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte, and one “Toto” Belegorio of Salvador Benedicto town had multiple gunshot wounds on the body.
Police Officer 1 Roberto John Arzaga of the Special Weapons and Tactics team of the Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSC) had a gunshot wound that dislocated his hand. He was set to undergo surgery at the Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital.
He was also hit on the body but was fortunately wearing a bulletproof vest.
PPSC and Murcia police station operatives were out to serve a search warrant to Harold Ramos Valenciano, a kalamansi plantation owner in the village. They arrested the subject.
Valenciano was allegedly keeping guns at the plantation, and hiring and arming civilians to guard it. Police were also investigating his alleged involvement in a rape case in Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte.
Some residents complained that Valenciano and his men would indiscriminately fire at anyone passing by the plantation, police said.
What prompted the police to seek a search warrant was a report that Valenciano and his men barged into the house of Dominador De Los Santos and shot his 18-year-old son Roberto on Wednesday night, said Superintendent Frederick Mead, PPSC head.
Regional Trial Court Branch 52 (Bacolod City) Judge Raymond Joseph Javier issued the warrant.
The shootout transpired when one of the two teams of pursuing officers, which included Arzaga, were at the plantation.
A companion of the armed men, a certain “Estoy,” also of Salvador Benedicto, managed to escape, police said.
Seized from Valenciano were a loaded .45 Colt and magazine, a magazine for a .45 pistol, seven bullets for a .45 pistol, a magazine for an M16, 29 bullets for an M16, a black holster for a .45 pistol, six empty shells of a .9mm gun, and a homemade shotgun.
Recovered at the plantation were a .9mm Glock Meadow revolver, an improvised shotgun with an empty magazine, a .45 pistol, an improvised 12-gauge shotgun, an M203 grenade launcher, and a .22 pistol with six bullets./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
