Man killed in front of minor girlfriend

CEBU, Philippines – In front of his 14-year-old girlfriend, a 43-year-old man was gunned down after he got into a heated argument with another man with whom had a transaction on illegal drugs at Barangay San Nicolas Proper, Cebu City at around 9:45 p.m. Friday.

The victim, Leonardo Gesmen of 251 B. Katipunan Street-Salvador in Labangon, succumbed to a gunshot wound on his head.

Police Officer 3 Cristobal Geronimo, homicide investigator of the Cebu City Police Office, said the victim’s minor girlfriend had admitted that their purpose of going to the interior portion of sitio Kalubihan in that barangay was to get stocks of illegal drugs.

The girl allegedly admitted to Geronimo that Gesmen was a drug pusher, while she was a drug user herself.

Before the transaction, she narrated that Gesmen was communicating with a certain Marlon allegedly for a stock of illegal drugs amounting to P55,000.

When she and Gesmen arrived at Kalubihan, another man (apparently not Marlon) who was wearing a yellow t-shirt and denim short pants was there to deliver the illegal drugs and receive the payment from them.

However, Gesmen got into an argument with this man because the former only had P15,500 as the supposed payment. In the middle of their altercation, two other men on board a motorcycle suddenly arrived and the three surrounded Gesmen. One of them shot Gesmen on the left side of his head.

The girl said the three took the P15,500 cash from Gesmen then left the scene. “It appeared like a set-up,” said Geronimo, adding that responding policemen rushed the victim to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

In the course of the investigation, some names as possible suspects have surfaced, but the police still have to make some verifications on these, Geronimo told The Freeman.

Meanwhile, earlier that Friday or around 5:15 p.m., another shooting occurred at Barangay Pardo in Cebu Cebu where a 38-year-old man was shot dead.

The victim, identified as Emmanuel Socobos was walking along F. Jaca Street at sitio Molabi in Pardo when two men on a motorcycle came up and suddenly shot him thrice, before immediately speeding away.

Socobos, a bachelor residing at sitio Elma also in Pardo, succumbed to gunshot wounds on his head and abdomen.

Investigator Geronimo said the family of the victim told the police that Socobos was suffering from mental disturbance after he fell from a mango tree a few years ago.

Accordingly, the family would just let Socobos go anywhere he wanted and would just go home by meal time. Friday afternoon was the last time they heard Socobos alive.

Geronimo said they are now looking on what Socobos had done that could have angered and drove somebody to kill him, despite his mental condition.  (FREEMAN)