Drug suspect fights to death

A man died after he shot it out with police during a buy-bust operation in barangay Babag, Lapu-Lapu City last Friday.

The man only known as “Shaman” was declared dead on arrival at the Lapu-Lapu City District Hospital. Shaman sustained gunshot wounds in the body during the shootout with police.

Shaman’s cohort Sandy Casul, 38, of barangay Babag, and their suspected customer Amadeo Abad, 35, of sitio Kinalumsan, barangay Gun-ob, were also arrested during the operation.

Police confiscated 26 packs of suspected shabu, drug sniffing paraphernalia, P6,330  cash believed to be proceeds of their illegal drug trade, P600 marked money, and .38 revolver with two bullets.

decoys

Investigation showed that before the shootout, two decoys used marked money to buy a pack of suspected shabu from Shaman and Casul. When the transaction was made, the decoys signaled their police backup to move in.

But when the operatives of the Lapu-Lapu City Anti-Illegal Drugs Operation Task Group (CAIDSOTG) led by Senior Insp. Rogelio Pineda approached the suspects, Shaman pulled out a gun tucked in his waistband and fired at the policemen.

A shootout ensued where Shaman was hit several times in the body. Despite being wounded, he ran to the seashore nearby and jumped to the sea to escape, but he lost consciousness due to his wounds. No policemen were hurt in the shootout.

Casul and Abad were not able to escape during the shootout and was arrested.

Police said Abad was allegedly buying illegal drugs when the operation went down.

Casul and Abad were detained at the Lapu-Lapu police station pending the filing of  drug pushing and drug possession charges.