Man grabs guard’s gun, kills himself

 A “deeply depressed” man wanted to end his life but he had no gun so last Tuesday he snatched the gun of a security guard of DyHP station on Osmeña Boulevard and shot himself dead.

At least this was the account of the police investigation about the Tuesday incident when 34-year-old Benito Undang Jr. grabbed the gun from Jose Branzuela, an on-duty guard at the radio station, then used the gun in killing himself.

Undang lives with 22-year-old partner Marife Dayag and their two children at Waling-Waling Street in Phase 4 of Saint Jude Acres, barangay Bulacao. He was working as a carpenter of his aunt, Elvie Locke, 49, who is married to an American and living in Violeta Street of the same barangay.

Police accounts stated that, before the shooting, Undang went to DyHP supposedly to meet comedian Allan “Goliat” Nacorda, to ask for advice over his problem, and request that his life story be made into a drama on radio.

The comedian was however busy with some work at the time so he told the guard to let Undang wait for a while. But Undang suddenly grabbed Branzuela’s .38 caliber service revolver and hit the guard’s face with it.

Undang left and, reportedly on his way home to Bulacao, he sent text messages to Marife telling her that his life is “game over” and that he wanted to end his life using the gun he stole from the DyHP guard.

When he arrived at the unfinished house of Mrs. Locke, Undang again texted Marife and dared her to look for a sharpshooter policeman to play “games” with him. Shortly after, four gunshots were heard. Locke said that when they checked on what happened, they saw Undang already bloodied prompting them to bring him to the Cebu City Medical Center. He however died two hours later.

Police also learned from Locke that last week they gave Undang P2,560 to buy materials for the extension of her house. After several days, however, Undang did not surface until Monday when he told Marife that he was leaving to pick up the materials that he supposedly bought for his aunt. He did not show up again after that but on Tuesday, he sent text messages to Marife expressing his depression over his life.

Crime scene investigators recovered Branzuela’s gun with four cartridges and a live bullet in it. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE