Ex-NBI agent slain in Makati gym

A dismissed National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agent, who also acted as a bodyguard of the controversial star witness to the Vizconde Massacre, was shot dead on Saturday while he was “working out” at a gym in Makati city.

John Herra, 44, of Sison St., Barangay Bangkal, was killed inside the Republic of Fitness gym at the corner of Captain M. Reyes and General Malvar Sts., also in the same barangay.

The gym’s workers told police Herra was a regular customer, prompting investigators to surmise it was a targeted killing.

Makati chief of police Senior Supt. Manuel Lukban said that Herra was shot at 9:40 a.m. by an unidentified man in denim pants, a white tank top, and a cap, who posed as a gym customer.

Other members of the gym told investigators  that prior to the shooting, the victim even assisted the suspect when the former noticed that the suspect did not seem to know how to operate the gym facilities.

The suspect later shot Herra multiple times with a .45-caliber pistol. The victim sustained gunshot wounds on his head and body, Lukban said.

“The suspect then casually walked out, allegedly rode a motorcycle and made his escape heading toward Edsa,” Lukban said in a text message to the Inquirer.

There was no closed-circuit television footage of the incident, the police chief said.

Herra was dismissed from the NBI in 2001 after he allegedly refused to follow orders from his superiors.

The former bodyguard of Vizconde Massacre star witness Jessica Alfaro, Herra came out in media interviews in 2010 and called his former charge a “fake witness” to the crime.