Tau Gamma "member" shot, fugitive Akrho man tagged

An Alpha Kappa Rho member, earlier reported to have left Cebu after the police hunted him down for a string of murder cases in the past, was tagged in the shooting and wounding of a 21-year-old man at the corner of J.M. Basa and C. Padilla Streets at 5:30am yesterday.

The police identified the victim as Thursday Ortega, a carpenter who sources said was a member of the rival Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, although this has yet to be confirmed by the group's officials.

The suspected gunman was allegedly Arestotle Aves, the Akrho member who disappeared from the city but could have been back if reports were true that he was among the assailants who shot Ortega.

Ortega and two companions were waiting for a jeepney bound for Basak-Pardo when a cab suddenly stopped in front of them. Four men alighted, approached and shot several times Ortega who was hit in the body and right arm.

Ortega was taken to the Miller Hospital while the four men quickly fled from the scene. Reports have it that Aves was one of the four assailants.

Other reports also stated that Ortega had managed to fire back with his .38-caliber revolver but was outgunned with the assailants' 9-mm and .45-cal pistols.

Investigators found from the crime scene a slug, a bullet shell of a .38-cal gun, five bullet shells of a 9-mm gun, and nine bullet shells of a .45-cal gun.

Last January, the police listed Aves in the city's 10 most wanted personalities and they created a task force that would focus on hunting him down. He was just recently reported to be hiding somewhere in Camotes Islands.

His reported return to the city came when Akrho held its anniversary celebration last August 9 but the expanded task force failed to catch Aves as well as other wanted fraternity members. Homicide Section records show that Aves is being implicated in a string of cases, ranging from murder to frustrated murder that happened from January 12, last year, to January 7 this year.

On January 12 last year, Aves with Sonny Dela Cruz and a certain Waway was charged with murder for the death of Eduardo Paradero in Duljo-Fatima. Paradero, a construction worker, was fatally hit in the crossfire of the two rival fraternities.

On June 12, Aves and Dela Cruz was charged with frustrated murder for shooting Ritchie Hukdong, also in Duljo-Fatima.

On September 22, he was again implicated in an attempted murder case for attacking Jose Ocampo in Duljo-Fatima. On October 4, he and Dela Cruz were linked again to a frustrated murder case. An attempted murder case was lodged against him on December 12, followed by a murder case on December 21 and finally another murder case last January 7, for shooting Danilo Canao in Duljo-Fatima who later died at CCMC.- Ryan P. Borinaga