Girlfriend seeks justice for slain German, tags suspect

A second suspect was picked up by police for questioning last night in connection with the Talisay city shooting that left a German engineer dead and two other foreigners wounded after a dawn  confrontation in a McDonald’s outlet.

Police sources said the suspect who was fetched from his residence in Talisay is being checked out as one of three possible gunmen in the Feb.  20 incident.

The lone fatality, Henry Haffner, 31, was chased and fatally shot after he ran upstairs to hide when four men arrived at the restaurant on motorbikes past 4 a.m.

Police said he was not the target as the assailants came looking for two other foreign customers, a Frenchman and an Indian, who had exchanged heated words with two local men earlier in the fast-food outlet.

At the Rolling Hills funeral home in Mandaue city, the victim’s girlfriend, Sheila Gimutao, held back tears, saying she wanted to focus on “happy” memories of their days together.

The 24-year-old electronics engineer from Cebu City said she was in touch with Haffner’s family in Germany and was arranging for the transfer of his remains, which would take several days.

Gimutao said she wanted to keep a “happy” atmosphere in the wake to remember her partner, a travel enthusiast who did volunteer aid work for victims of the 2013 Bohol earthquake and typhoon Yolanda.

“I want him to feel that many love him. He was a frustrated comedian. Maybe we can sing German songs that he sometimes sang that we barely understood, drink his favorite drinks or do the Henry Step. I want to have a happy wake to remember how crazy he was,” said Gimutao.

The two met as volunteer aid workers over a year ago.

Gimutao was with her German boyfriend in McDonald’s Friday dawn waiting for a friend as they planned to go to Oslob town. She was able to identify a  suspect, Allan Veloz  (not Belus as reported earlier),  as one of the lookouts in the attack after police arrested him Friday night.

Veloz, now detained in the Talisay CitY Hall lock up, does odd jobs for a living like gathering scrap materials and repairing appliances.

He said he was just a “fall guy” in the case because the police were under pressure to solve the shooting.

SPO1 Mikie Espina, Talisay police investigator, said Velos was tagged in an earlier shootout with police in Mananga and had pending criminal cases.

Many friends of Haffner, who belonged to a group called Volunteers in Cebu, kept calling from different islands in the country to express their shock and condolences, said Gimutao.

She held back tears as she recalled holding Haffner as he lay gasping for breath, with several gunshots in his body.

“I still can’t accept how he died. We were just there to have some hot chocolate. It happened so fast,” she said.

She recalled seeing two other male foreign customers  complaining to the store staff about how they were harassed by some local customers, and whether the McDonald’s branch had a security camera.

“We were outside waiting for a ride when three motorbikes came. We had no idea what’s going on until we saw that some of the men were armed so we rushed into the store for cover,” narrated Gimutao.

When she saw Haffner was shot in the arm, she ran inside, allowing him to go in ahead of her.

“I thought that I was the target so I let Henry go in first. He ran with other crew members to the second floor.  I was able to run to the kitchen,” said Gimutao.

Then she heard gunshots fired on the second floor.

Gimutao later found her boyfriend on the floor bleeding.

“I remember holding his hand telling him not to let go. I told him to breathe and look at me , and told him everything would be OK. He kept staring at me trying to fight for his life.”

The German national died later in Chong Hua Hospital from multiple gunshot wounds.

The other two foreigners, Junard Millard and Indian national Cheten Sapraiya, are confined with gunshot injuries in a government hospital. Police personnel were detailed there for their security.

“I will pursue the case not just to give justice to  Henry. I know that he would want the safety of everybody away from these gunmen,” said Gimutao.