German tests negative for gunpowder burns

ANGELES CITY — A German national whose American companion was shot dead on the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo last week tested negative for gunpowder burns, boosting his claim that a "small, dark man," believed to be an Aeta, was, indeed, the gunman.

Despite this, Senior Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, Pampanga police director, said they are still considering other angles to the incident after they theorized that German Siegfried Wittman, 54, might have shot American Brian Thomas Smith, 33, over personal conflicts or illegal activities.

"That’s incredible and quite preposterous," Wittman told The STAR before he was released from the Angeles University Foundation Medical Center yesterday.

Wittman also sustained bullet wounds in the legs when they were allegedly fired at while scaling the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo at about 10 a.m. last Jan. 30.

"Smith has been in the country for only about three months. He was one of the nicest fellows I have ever met. He was not a toughie," Wittman said.

SPO1 Apolonio Sales, of the regional police crime laboratory, said the paraffin test conducted on Wittman last Friday yielded negative results.

"But the negative results do not mean we have already junked our other theories. The paraffin test was conducted about 48 hours after the alleged shooting," Rafanan said.

Senior Inspector Edilberto Lajom, a duty officer at the crime laboratory, himself said that the paraffin test results "are not conclusive," saying Wittman could be wearing gloves during the shooting incident.

Wittman, in his statement to the police, claimed that the first shot he heard fatally hit Smith in the back. He said the same bullet pierced through Smith’s body and hit his leg.

Wittman clarified that he saw the "small, dark man" holding what seemed to be a rifle only about an hour after Smith was shot dead, as he pursued him.

He said the attacker fled after he decided to emerge from the boulders where he had hid and finally confront him. The man, he said, was about 150 feet away.

"I later went to the site where the man had been and saw small footprints there. I don’t know if the man had companions earlier but when I saw him an hour later, he was alone," he said.

Wittman frowned upon another police theory that he and Smith had a "special relationship" as they both rented units, although separate, at the Skyline apartments in Barangay Malabanias in Angeles City.

"We had not been friends for a long time and we were not that close. Our common interest was biking," he said, adding that Smith was "generous with his money."

An informant, whom the police declined to identify, said the attacker was, indeed, an Aeta who was purged from the New People’s Army for his alleged criminal activities, including rape.

Wittman challenged the police to hunt down their attacker who, he said, may now be wearing the hunting boots and red shorts with Puerto Galera markings which he had left on Mt. Pinatubo’s slopes.

"If they find anyone wearing my boots and my shorts, then they got the criminal," he said. — With Ric Sapnu