Vendor tagged as suspect in partner’s slay surrenders

A MAN tagged as a suspect in the murder of his live-in partner surrendered to the police several hours after the victim was shot dead in their rented house in barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City.

Ronnie Caparida, 29, a native of San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, said what happened was an accident.

He said he was cleaning his gun when it went off, hitting Alicia Revealde, 42, a native of barangay Maluray, Dalaguete town, in the temple.

The shooting happened past 11 a.m. last Tuesday but it was only reported past 8 p.m., said Senior Insp. Jul Mohammad Jamiri, chief of the homicide section of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).

Revealde was already dead when policemen arrived in the couple’s house in sitio Ponce.

Caparida surrendered to the police nine hours after the shooting. It was the suspect’s brother who informed the police that Caparida was willing to surrender.
Jamiri said there were indications that the shooting was intentional.

The police official said it was unusual that it took Caparida nine hours to surface after the killing.

Some neighbors told police that the couple had been fighting in the past few days.

Jamiri said there were traces of powder burns in the victim wound indicating that the woman was shot at close range.

Jamiri said investigators were waiting for the result of the autopsy to find out if the shooting was intentional.

The suspect failed to surrender the gun used in the killing, saying he already threw it away.

The suspect, who was detained at the CCPO stockade, can still be held liable even if it will be proven that the shooting was accidental.

The couple worked as vendor at Carbon market.

The woman had two children from a previous relationship. /CORRESPONDENT CHITO O. ARAGON