Jessie Largo killed in shootout with police

Lifeless body of Jessie Largo (CDN Photo/Benjie Talisic)

The suspect in the murder of a journalist’s son in August was killed in a shootout with policemen late on Monday afternoon.

Jessie Largo exchanged gunfires with operatives of the Talisay City Police Station, the Regional Intelligence Division (RID) and the Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) past 4 p.m. on Monday while in his home in Sitio Aroma, Barangay Dumlog.

Largo died from multiple gunshot wounds on his body.

But he also managed to injure Police Officer 3 David Naraja Jr. of the RSOG, who sustained a gunshot wound on his left cheek.

Naraja is now confined in a private hospital in Cebu City where he is recuperating.

Largo has been in hiding since the August 26 killing of John Ronli Calizar, son of Public Information Agency Central Visayas (PIA-7) employee Ferliza Contratista, inside a boarding house in Barang Lawaan 1.

Talisay City Mayor Eduardo Gullas offered a P200,000 bounty for his arrest.

Supt. Jason Villamater, chief of the Talisay City Police Station, said they received information on Monday afternoon on the presence of an armed Largo in his home in Sitio Aroma, Barangay Dumlog.

Villamater said that Largo has become very elusive since Calizar’s killing.

He said that Largo would leave his home using a fishing boat that he would use as getaway vehicle if there was a need for him to avoid chasing policemen.

He keeps the fishing boat at the back of his shanty that is made of light materials.

A river is located around 20 meters away from where he lives.

Villamater said that Largo was nowhere in sight when they visited his shanty around 4 p.m. on Monday.

Members of the joint police team were about to leave the area when they noticed him disembark from the ceiling where he was hiding.

Villamater said that Largo was the first to fire shots when he noticed policemen head back to his shanty, and injured PO3 Naraja.

Policemen killed Largo when they returned fire, he added.