Laborer shot dead in Carbon market

A market helper did not make to the hospital alive after being shot by an unidentified man in Carbon Market Unit III in barangay Ermita Saturday in the evening.

The victim was identified as Antonio Sarmiento, 38, a laborer who also works as a watchman for stocked vegetable waiting to be sold by vendors at the said market.

The victim's live-in partner, Haida Melencio, 23, told SPO2 Rey Cuyos that she was informed by a neighbor named Vanessa about the victim being shot while she was attending to their two-month-old baby.

Melencio saw the victim being carried by bystanders to a multicab to bring him to the Cebu City Medical Center but the victim did not make it there alive.

Police said the victim was shot twice in the head; once in the back of the head and then again from the right side.

Cuyos told The Freeman that they are looking into possibility that some laborers harbored a grudge against the victim for control of the area, the victim is reportedly a known toughie in the area. Laborers earn their living by stevedoring for market goers, some push carts while others just carry the purchased goods on their back during the day. At night they also are hired by stall owners and wholesalers to keep an eye over their goods.

Police said none of the occupants of the stalls in the area could give them any information about the incident.

Meanwhile, a police asset landed in a hospital after being shot in the nose by an identified man who accused him of arresting his brother.

The man, a member of the Barangay Intelligence Network of the Cebu City Police Office who lives in sitio Tabay, barangay Carreta, told Homicide Section investigators that he was standing by the side of the road in sitio Mahayahay of the same barangay when an unidentified man approached him and accused him of arresting his brother.

The asset denied the accusation but the suspect reportedly drew out a gun of undetermined caliber anyway and shot him in close range.

Luckily, the suspect only hit his nose after the victim tried to duck. He was brought to CCMC for treatment while the suspect fled. PO2 Oliver Glodobe and another policeman from Mabolo police station invited a security guard identified as Antonio Garbo and brought him to confront the victim in CCMC but the latter told the police that Garbo was his friend and was not the one who shot him. - Edwin Ian Melecio