IT was the end of the road for a 40-year-old man accused of stabbing to death a barangay chairman and then taking two kids hostage in barangay Hagnaya, San Remigio town in northern Cebu Monday.
The suspect identified as Sitoy Sinangote was shot down by a SWAT officer after he stabbed a bystander and then took two siblings hostage, PO1 Jeffrey Lequin of the San Remigio police precinct said.
Lequin said Sinangote’s trail of violence began when he waited on barangay Hagnaya chairman Jose Jerry Cabahug at his brother’s store at noon Monday.
Cabahug who arrived at the area on board a motorcycle was caught off
guard after Sinangote suddenly stabbed him at the back. The barangay chairma fell to the ground.
“Pag-una wa siya kaila kinsa ang nagdunggab kay nagtalikod man siya. Paglingi na niya didto na niya nailhan si Sinangote, nagpakalooy pa siya aron ihunong sa suspect pero gitiwas siyag dunggab sa may dunghan (At first he didn’t know who stabbed him because he was facing backwards. When he looked he saw Sinangote and begged him to stop but the suspect stabbed him in the chest),” Lequin said.
Sinangote allegedly stabbed Cabahug on hearing rumors about the barangay official’s affair with his former live-in partner Ruth Tillor. The suspect then boarded a docked shuttle headed to Bantayan Island to escape police.
Lequin said Sinangote jumped overboard and swam to sitio Baha-Baha in barangay Hagnaya where he was followed by police and a SWAT team.
He added that the suspect was purportedly high on drugs.
After dropping his bladed weapon, Sinangote managed to get another one whichn he used to hack a bystander identified as Romulo Vargas who sustained a wound on his neck.
Sinangote then took two siblings, an 11-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother. “It almost took five minutes of negotiation. One of the SWAT personnel shot the suspect dead. We were afraid that he might hurt the two kids,” Lequin said.
The 11-year-old girl reportedly sustained scratches on various parts of her body and a wound on her neck after being held at knife point. The boy was left./Correspondent Apple Mae Ta-as
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