Man guns down tanod at the downtown area

A 46-year-old tanod of barangay Kalubihan was gunned down by a 34-year-old man, reportedly an RTW trader, after they figured in a confrontation on Sanciangco Street at around noon yesterday.

Homicide investigator PO2 Edario Manatad identified the victim as Alfredo Anuba, who resided at barangay Sambag I, and the alleged assailant as Nilo dela Cerna, of V. Rama Avenue in barangay Calamba.

Manatad said a witness, who helped an off-duty policeman arrest Dela Cerna, narrated seeing the wounded Anuba fleeing from a man with a gun, with the wife of the victim running after them and yelling for help, all the way from Sanciangco Street to Leon Kilat Street.

Anuba, who already had a gunshot wound in the chest, stumbled in front of a furniture store before reaching Leon Kilat. The gunman got into him and fired another shot to the head of the victim who died on the spot.

The shooting broke out suddenly, as what Dela Cerna admitted to the police after his arrest. He said he did not know Anuba at all but he admitted that he got enraged when the tanod "arrogantly" checked him out where he was going.

"Daklit raman to sir, nagkugos siya sa iyang anak unya iya kung gisitar kung asa kuno ko adto. Pagtubag nako, iya mang gihatag iyang anak sa iyang asawa mao to nga nakahuna-huna ko nga away ang gipangita niya kay niaksyon naman siya og bunot sa hawak. Ako nalang giunhan," he said.

Right after the shooting, Dela Cerna quickly boarded a passenger jeepney apparently to escape but a witness who saw the incident followed him and alerted an off-duty policeman on a motorcycle.

The off-duty policeman, PO2 Diego Romero Abad Jr., of the Regional Service Security Group, was driving his motorcycle along Colon Street when he saw the commotion and people scampering from the crime scene.

The witness approached and asked Abad to chase the suspected gunman who was already inside the PUJ. Abad caught up with the PUJ and ordered the suspect to alight from the jeep.

The suspect obliged and even asked Abad to handcuff him while telling where he hid his gun.

Dela Cerna admitted that, since the past two months, he has been carrying a .357 caliber revolver to protect him from bad elements after somebody shot him on Colon Street while attending to his business.

He said he was about to go to his cousin, a policeman assigned in Talisay City, when he rode on the PUJ but Abad caught up with him, prompting him to surrender. - Edwin Ian Melecio