One wounded in Christmas eve shootout in Carreta

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A shootout between a group of teenagers and a policeman less than an hour before Christmas Day ended with a wounded resident of Barangay Carreta, Cebu City.

Joven Maningog Montero, 24, was shot in the body by an unidentified armed teenager as Montero accompanied a policeman responding to the armed person alarm in the area approached the teenagers, said Police Sergeant Roy Bacus of the Mabolo Police Station in his initial investigation of the incident.

Montero had earlier reported and sought help from his policeman-neighbor, Police Sergeant Pompeo Tranquilano Tanajura, who is assigned to the Mandaue City Police Office, about the armed teenagers at the Ayala Access Road worrying residents in the area.

Bacus said when Montero and Tanajura approached the teenagers who were believed to be armed, one of the teenagers fired at the approaching Montero and Tanajura.

Montero was hit in the body and Tanajura fired back twice but missed as the teenagers scrambled toward the Chinese cemetery and made good their escape.

Bacus said that Montero was immediately brought to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) for medical treatment and is currently in stable condition.

Two of the suspects have been identified by their aliases, “Dugyot” and “Christian,” and the police are still looking for them.

The police are also still investigating the motives of the teenagers on why they were carrying a gun and how they managed to get hold of one./dbs