2 nabbed after being caught on video killing man on Manila sidewalk
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MANILA, Philippines – Police arrested Tuesday two men caught by a security camera as they killed a cobbler by smashing and stabbing his face with a hammer and a knife while the man lay asleep on a Manila sidewalk the previous day.
Roel Cabarles, 22, a scavenger, and Jeffrey Ronales, 25, a construction worker, were apprehended by officers of the Manila Police District homicide division headed by case investigator Senior Police Officer 1 Charles John Duran.
The two had been positively identified by relatives of the victim, Mateo Buyron, 53, as the same men shown on video attacking the cobbler with a hammer and a knife on a sidewalk in Manila’s Sta. Cruz district early Monday morning.
Like his alleged attackers, Buyron, who earned a living mending worn out shoes, lived in the city’s streets, bedding down on sidewalks wherever night caught up with him as he moved around looking for customers.
Duran said Cabarles was arrested around 9 a.m. on Lacson Street in Sampaloc. Ronales was caught a few minutes later near SM San Lazaro after Carbarles directed the authorities to where his alleged accomplice was.
The family of Buyron positively identified the two as the men seen on a closed-circuit television footage smashing the victim’s head and stabbing him on the face early Monday morning. Buyron died on the spot.
According to Arnel Padilla, 17, the victim’s nephew, he easily recognized the two when he saw footage of the crime.
“Jeffrey was the one holding the knife while Roel was the person with the hammer,” Padilla told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The suspects, according to Buyron’s relative, had figured in an argument with the victim early in December. “They were fighting over a sleeping mat which the two were borrowing from my uncle,” Padilla added.
Investigators said that Buyron and the suspects had no permanent residences as they would transfer from one place to another looking for jobs. They would just camp on the sidewalks at night, the police added.
The victim’s family also claimed that aside from doing construction and scavenging, the two were notorious robbers in the area.
“When Jeff was arrested at SM San Lazaro, he was spotting possible victims to rob,” Padilla said, claiming familiarity with the duo’s alleged roguishness in their neighborhood.
But both suspects denied involvement in the killing of Buyron.
Cabarles said he was surprised when police arrested him while he was preparing his push cart on Tuesday morning.
Claiming innocence too, Ronales said victim’s family just pointed at him without any basis.
But Senior Police Officer 3 Glenzor Vallejo, one of the arresting officers, told the Inquirer that both men fit the profile of those in the CCTV video.
“As you can observe, the two arrested have the same build and height as the men who attacked the victim on the video,” Vallejo said. Their faces could not be clearly made out on the video.
