Funeral parlor attendants transfer the body of Teodoro Mejares to the gurney after Scene of the Crime Operatives have already processed the crime scene in Barangay Tipolo Mandaue City. | Benjie Talisic
MANDAUE CITY, CEBU, Philippines — A 53-year-old grandfather was shot dead in front of his wife and seven-year-old granddaughter about 50 meters from Mandaue Hall of Justice in the afternoon of July 11 at Barangay Tipolo in Mandaue City.
Teodoro Mejares of Barangay Casili, Consolacion town in northern Cebu had just paid his bail for a case of illegal possession of firearms and was heading home at past 4 p.m. when he was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen, said Police Staff Sergeant Eracleo Cebuco of Precinct 2 of the Mandaue City Police Office.
Mejares wife, who together with their grandchild witnessed the shooting of Teodoro, told Cebuco that her husband even begged the assailant on the motorcycle not to shoot him.
“Ayaw tawon kog pusila, sir (Please don’t shoot me, sir),” Mejares’ wife said this was the last words that her husband uttered before he was killed.
Investigation showed that Teodoro was at the Mandaue City Hall of Justice at the Regional Trial Court Branch 56 to post bail for a illegal possession of firearms case.
Teodoro was allegedly caught in 2018 by Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas operatives in possession of an illegal firearm.
Teodoro, his wife and their grandchild were walking about 50 meters away from the Hall of Justice when two men on a motorcycle arrived.
Teodoro’s wife told Cebuco that the assailants were wearing full face helmets and the backrider pulled out a gun and shot several times.
Mandaue police and paramedics received the shooting alarm and rushed to the crime scene.
They found Teodoro face down in a pool of blood already dead.
Police continued their investigation of the killing of Teodoro. They were interviewing witnesses and would check on the security cameras in the area that might have recorded the shooting incident. /dbs