1 killed, 2 injured in fiesta shooting

An altercation that led to a shooting between two drinking partners during a fiesta celebration in barangay Cabungahan, Danao City Sunday evening killed one of the protagonists and wounded two others, including a councilman who tried to pacify them.

The police said the fatality was 37-year-old Danilo Lato while those who were wounded by stray bullets were councilman Lamberto Capul, 66, who was manning the area’s security, and Raul Camanci, 44, who was just watching the disco at the time.

The suspect who is identified as Epifanio Camacho, a resident of the place, eluded arrest but surrendered to authorities yesterday morning.

Investigators said that Camacho and Lato had a drinking session outside the disco area. They later got into a heated argument and Camacho pulled out a gun from his waist and pointed it at Lato.

Lato tried to stop Camacho and the two scuffled for the gun, which suddenly fired hitting Lato in the abdomen. Stray bullets hit Capul in his shoulder and Camanci in his chest and back.

The three victims were immediately taken to the Danao City District Hospital but the attending physician declared Lato dead on arrival. Capul and Camanci were later moved to a hospital in Cebu City.

Meanwhile in barangay Libo in Sibonga that same Sunday night, a farmer hacked and wounded a jobless man over what the police believed could be due to a grudge between them.

The victim, Wennie Reponte, sustained hack wounds to different parts of his body while the suspected assailant, Jacinto Tecson, immediately surrendered to authorities after the incident.

Police reports stated that Reponte had just came from a public disco in the barangay and was on his way home at around 7 p.m. when he met Tecson on the road. Both were under the influence of liquor, said the report.

As the two met, they got into an altercation over a long-held grudge, the nature of which has yet to be determined by the police.

In the middle of their verbal fight, Reponte got a stone and struck it on Tecson’s head, wounding the latter. The injured Tecson drew his bolo and retaliated by hacking Reponte several times in the body.  

Reponte was first rushed to a medical clinic in Sogod, then transferred later to the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

Tecson voluntarily surrendered to the barangay officials of Libo, who then turned him over to the Sogod Police station where he is now temporarily detained pending the filing of charges against him. — Garry B. Lao/RAE