Del Corro
(CDN photo/ Lito Tecson)
VEROSE Solima, the wife of slain lawyer Salvador Solima, is no longer in critical condition, as she was wheeled out of the intensive care unit nearly two days after she was shot along with her husband inside their home on Monday afternoon.
Supt. Ryan Devaras, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO)-Investigation, Detection and Management Branch (IDMB) chief, said that the wife was already out of danger and has been placed in a recovery room since late Tuesday.
On Monday, July 2, two persons pretending to seek legal representation went to the house of Solima in Singson Village, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu, and shot the couple.
Verose sustained a gunshot wound on her head and had to undergo an operation in a hospital in Cebu City. Lawyer Solima, who was rushed to the same hospital, however failed to make it and died at past 6 p.m., barely an hour after he was shot in the head and chest.
Devaras said they were happy that Verose survived the attack as she could be a vital witness to identifying her and her husband’s attacker and in determining the motive for the shooting.
He said they were now preparing to get the statement of Solima’s widow and would do so once she would be ready to talk to the police.
The police have arrested one of the alleged assailants, Ricarte del Corro, but they have yet to determine the motive for the attack, said Devaras.
Del Corro was nabbed by the Punta Princesa Police Station in a drug bust on Tuesday and it was after his arrest that witnesses to the Solima couple’s attack identified him as one of the alleged gunmen.
Police also called for questioning two other suspects, brothers Alberto and Alvin Baluyos, who were suspected to be involved in the killing, as Alberto had a disagreement with the lawyer over alleged non-payment of a property that the Baluyos family had sold through the lawyer.
But Devaras said they were also looking into other angles in the lawyer’s murder, including its relation to the drug cases handled by Solima.
The police have yet to file the murder and frustrated murder cases against Del Corro, but they have filed the drug case against him at the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office yesterday.
Devaras said that aside from Del Corro, the Baluyos brothers, who allegedly served as lookouts during the incident, would be also included in the murder complaint.
“They are now considered as suspects. They were in the place hours before the incident. And we have witnesses saying that they brought Del Corro to the house of the lawyer a week before the shooting happened,” said Devaras.
Senior Supt. Royina Garma, CCPO director, meanwhile said that despite the arrest of Del Corro, they could not close the investigation as they were still looking into the person or persons who masterminded the killing.
“May mastermind or something, so we have to investigate further,” said Garma.
The police were also still trying to identify who was the other person who was involved in the attack against the Solima couple.