Jersam Armecin of Sunshine Valley, Barangay Quiot, Cebu City surrenders to police after killing his neighbor, Vladimir Despi Alatraca over a parking space. | Benjie Talisic
CEBU CITY, Philippines — An argument between two neighbors over a parking space ended in tragedy when one of them shot dead the other person.
Vladimir Despi Alatraca, 40, died after he was shot in the body by his neighbor, Jersam Armecin, 46, at about 11:30 a.m., said Police Major Hendrix Bancoleta, Labangon Police Precinct chief.
Both Armecin and Alatraca both live in Sunshine Valley in Barangay Quiot, Cebu City.
A few hours after the shooting Armecin, who was accompanied by his lawyer, surrendered to police.
He also did not turn over the gun he used to kill Alatraca, but police recovered an empty shell of a 9 mm pistol at the crime scene.
This was the second killing of the day in just a span of an hour and a half. The first one happened in Cordova town at 10 a.m. when motorcycle-riding gunmen ambushed a police officer there.
Read more: Acting deputy chief of Cordova Police ambushed
In the Barangay Quiot shooting, investigation showed that Armecin and Alatraca had an argument last June 14, Friday, over a rented parking space.
The argument got so bad that it prompted Armecin’s wife to seek the barangay officials’ help in resolving their differences.
They were scheduled to have a mediation meeting at the barangay hall, and both were at the parking area to drive to their meeting.
But as Alatraca was about to back out of his parking lot, Armecin was also backing out of his spot and blocked Alatraca’s vehicle.
This angered Alatraca, who got off his vehicle, confronted Armecin, and challenged him to a fistfight.
Armecin, however, had no plans to take him up to his offer and instead pulled out a gun and fatally shot Alatraca in the body.
Armecin surrendered later and was detained at the Labangon Police Precinct detention cell pending the filing of charges./dbs