Handcuffed ‘judge killer’ shot dead by cop during ‘gun grab’

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CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — One of the suspected killers of a regional trial court judge in Bulacan was shot dead by his police escort after he allegedly grabbed the gun of the lawman while on their way to court in San Jose del Monte City on Monday.

 
Chief Supt. Rudy Lacadin, Central Luzon regional police director, said Arnel Janoras, one of the two suspects in the Nov. 11 murder of Bulacan RTC Branch 84 Judge Wilfredo Nieves, was in handcuffs when he grabbed the gun of his escort.

Lacadin said, the escort and the suspect were grappling for the gun when it fired and hit Janoras in the chin.

Janoras was being escorted for inquest proceedings regarding a different crime when the incident occurred in Barangay San Pablo in Malolos City at 9:20 a.m.

 
Another suspect, who was earlier presented for inquest for the murder of Nieves, is held at the Bulacan provincial jail in Malolos, police said.

 
Nieves, who convicted one of the leaders of the Dominguez car theft group in 2012, was shot and killed by two men as he waited for his turn at an intersection near the Malolos Industrial Park on MacArthur Highway in Barangay (village) Tikay.

Witnesses said the gunmen alighted from a vehicle that was apparently tailing Nieves’ Toyota Fortuner, flanked the judge’s sport utility vehicle (SUV) and opened fire.