THE jail officer who was wounded in an ambush last Monday has not returned home.
Jail Insp. Edwin Sarcon has been on official leave and was asked by his superiors to stay in a safe house, said Jail Chief Supt. Arnold Buenacosa, director of the Bureau of Jail Manegement and Penology in Central Visayas (BJMP-7).
“He (Sarcon) is in a safe place now,” said Buenacosa in an interview.
He refused to reveal details about Sarcon’s whereabouts for security reasons.
“He suffered trauma due to what happened,” Buenacosa said.
Masked assailants riding a motorbike peppered Sarcon’s car with bullets while the jail officer was driving his Isuzu MUX along the corner of R. Duterte and V. Rama Avenue in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City past 7 a.m. on Monday.
Jail Insp. Edwin Sarcon was grazed by the bullet but managed to run and save his life.
Witnesses said one assailant covered his face with scarf while the other wore a face mask and a helmet. The two perpetrators boarded a motorcycle driven by another man after the early morning attack.
Senior Insp. Jonathan Taneo, chief of the Homicide Division of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said Sarcon told investigators that he heard a burst of gunfire that hit his car. When he looked around, Sarcon saw one of the gunmmen approached him.
Taneo said Sarcon tried to fire back but his gun malfunctioned. Sarcon quickly disembarked from the vehicle and ran towards a nearby public market before he proceeded to the BJMP-7 office which is just about 300 meters away from the crime scene.
Sarcon, 53, sustained a graze wound on his neck.
Senior Supt. Joel Doria, director of the Cebu City Police Office, said the City Intelligence Branch and the Investigation Detection Management Branch are investigating the incident.
“We will dig deeper to find what happened,” he said.
Chief Supt. Robert Quenery, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas, said investigators are considering all possible angles behind the attempt to kill Sarcon.
“I believed in the capacity of our investigators,” he said.
Quenery urged Sarcon to cooperate in the investigation to identify the perpetrators.
Cebu Daily News contacted Sarcon yesterday but he did not answer the calls.