2 dead, 1 hurt in barangay Apas stabbings

Two construction workers were stabbed dead and another wounded when they were attacked by the 66-year-old caretaker of a house, where they were staying, along Col. Torralba Street in barangay Apas yesterday dawn.

Police said the fatalities were 39-year-old Jerry  Borja and 24-year-old Jason “Goning” Dello while the injured was 23-year-old Arnulfo “Boboy” Limbo who is now confined at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

Borja was a stay-in worker; Dello was a native of barangay Kambungol, Santol,  Negros Occidental; and Limbo was a native of barangay Gimpanaan, Magallon, Negros Occidental.

The suspected assailant, Fernando Medina Jr, a resident of barangay Pari-an, was the caretaker of the house owned by a certain Bernardo Zamora who was the employer of the victims.

Homicide investigators, SPO4 Dennis Moga Jr, PO2 Jeffrey Gutual and PO1 Michael Codaste, said Medina barged into the rented room of the victims and attacked them with a knife.

Medina stabbed first Borja four times in the left chest and the commotion awakened Dello and Limbo who, before they realized what was happening, were stabbed also.

Dello and Limbo, each with stab wound in the left chest, however managed to run to the exit door and seek help from their neighbors.

Few minutes after, the policemen arrived in time to stop an angry mob from mauling Medina further.

PO1s Noel Melecio Belicario and Jerry Gambi, of the City Police Beat Patrol Section, arrested the bloodied Medina and recovered from him the blood-stained knife allegedly used in the attack.

Responding policemen from the Mobile Patrol Group rushed Dello to the Cebu City Medical Center but he died a few minutes later while undergoing treatment.

Medina said the victims got mad at him when he admonished them for drinking liquor at the second floor of the house.

He said they attacked him with the knife but, due to his skills in boxing and martial arts, he was able to disarm them and he retaliated by stabbing them with the weapon. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE