PO2 Brando Maraña of Police Station 3 demontrates based on witnesses’ accounts where the two policemen positioned themselves while conducting surveillance operation at a cockpit in Sitio Sunlot, Barangay Calawisan, Lapu-Lapu City in line with their fiesta celebration. (CDN PHOTO/ NORMAN MENDOZA)
Lapu cop shot behind amid hunt for suspect
What was supposed to be a simple surveillance operation turned bloody for two Lapu-Lapu City police officers.
PO3 Antonio Inihao Jr., a member of the Marigondon police station intelligence division, and his colleague, PO3 Jasper Nuñez, were shot several times by an unidentified assailant in Sitio Sunlot, Barangay Calawisan, Lapu-Lapu City before noon yesterday.
Inihao, 36, a resident of Sitio Radar, Barangay Babag, Lapu-Lapu City died after sustaining six gunshot wounds on his back and chest while Nuñez, a resident of Cordova town, was critically injured.
The two were involved in anti-drug operations that resulted in the arrest of some drug dealers in Lapu-Lapu City last December.
Senior Insp. Alcon Escusora, chief of the Marigondon police precinct, said Inihao had received a death threat in a text message prior to the ambush.
He said Inihao had a cousin in Calawisan and planned to celebrate the fiesta there.
Police said Inihao went to the Hoops Dome police precinct to tell Nuñez about a tip he received on the presence of a wanted criminal at a makeshift cockpit in Sitio Sunlot.
Inihao also invited Nuñez to have lunch in his cousin’s house. Since it was still 11 a.m., the two off-duty policemen decided to watch a cockfight before proceeding to the house of Inihao’s cousin.
The two police officers were watching the cockfight when the assailant, who wore a black jacket, jeans and a bull cap, passed by and fired at Inihao from behind.
The assailant, who used a helmet to hide the firearm, also shot Nuñez’s legs and feet as people scampered away.
Some witnesses saw the gunman flee towards the main road where two motorcycles were parked.
“Since he received a death threat Inihao wore a bullet proof vest. Inihao was very aggressive and active in looking for these drug personalities,” Escusora said. Apparently, Inihao was not wearing a vest at the time of the ambush.
Senior Supt. Arnel Amor Libed, acting Lapu-Lapu City police chief, ordered his personnel to double up at checkpoints and road blocks to ensure their security.
“Hindi kasi natin alam nasa paligid lang ang kalaban (We really don’t know the enemy might be just around),” he said.
Found at the crime scene were eight spent shells and three deformed slugs from a .45 pistol. Escusora said the two police officers were in civilian attire at the time.
Nuñez was transferred to an undisclosed private hospital on Libed’s orders.