Cop shot dead meters away from Abra town police station

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — A police officer transferred to an Abra town from Cebu was shot to death on Tuesday morning just a few steps from the police station.

Police M/Sgt. Frederick Fernandez Ybanez was reportedly at the yard of his boarding house above a food house in Barangay Poblacion, only about 40 meters from the police station in Villaviciosa, when two assassins, reportedly even having a snack there, came from behind and peppered him with bullets.

Inspector Raquel Alonzo, a senior staff of the Abra police information office, said Ybanez just left the police station when he was shot dead at 8:40 a.m.

Alonzo said policemen heard the gunshots and ran out to find Ybanez sprawled on the ground.

He was rushed to the Seares Memorial Hospital in Bangued, Abra's capital town, but did not reach it alive. 

Crime scene investigators found five spent shells for cal.45 and a spent shell for an 9-mm pistol.

Alonzo said Ybanez's ervice pistol and government-issued rifle are now taken in the custody of Villaviciosa town police.

Town police sent men to Pilar town, where the shooters reportedly fled. They also put up checkpoints in Pilar and San Isidro towns but failed to make any arrests.

Investigators already have a person of interest in the case.