3 in German’s killing charged with murder

A PHOTO grab of CCTV footage showing a gunman, identified as Ricci Edwin Ramirez Jr., inside a fast-food restaurant in Talisay City where German national Heinrich Haffner was killed. LITO TECSON/CEBU DAILY NEWS

CEBU CITY—Multiple criminal charges were filed Tuesday against the three suspects in the killing of a German industrial engineer and the wounding of a Frenchman and an Indian national inside a fast-food restaurant in Talisay City, Cebu.

SP01 Mikie Espina, investigator of the Talisay City police station, said charges for murder, two counts of frustrated murder and illegal possession of firearms were filed at the Talisay City prosecutor’s office against Allan Veloz, 40, from San Isidro, Talisay City; Roger Cal, 40, from Tabunok, Talisay City; and Ricci Edwin Ramirez Jr., 21, also from Tabunok.

Investigators, however, said at least six persons were involved and the regional police, headed by Director Prudencio Tom Bañas, had ordered the creation of a task force to arrest the remaining suspects.

Supt. Rex Derilo of the regional police investigation division said he believed that the suspects, who killed German national Heinrich Haffner and injured two other foreigners, were not just common criminals.

Haffner, 31, was an industrial engineer who volunteered in relief operations in Central Visayas after a 7.2-magnitude quake devastated Bohol province in October 2013.

But he was not part of the group of the two foreign nationals who were the ones engaged in a heated argument with the suspects. He had been mistaken to be a companion of the two foreigners.

Frenchman Julian Millard and Indian national Cheten Saparaiya were the real targets, but the suspects also shot Haffner who was with his girlfriend at that time.

Three suspects are now in police custody. On Friday, police arrested Veloz who was identified as the gunman who shot and wounded Millard and Saparaiya.

On Saturday, Ramirez, a pedicab driver of Talisay, was arrested by members of the Special Operations Group of the regional police. Seized from him were a .45-cal. pistol and two packs of suspected shabu.

Ramirez had been identified as the man in the closed-circuit television footage carrying a gun, and one of the two gunmen who chased and shot Haffner several times.

Ramirez admitted to reporters that he was, indeed, one of the gunmen and that he shot Haffner thrice.

He said, though, that another man, identified only as Tata, was the one who shot the German first.

Ramirez said Tata brought him to the area to “teach the foreigners a lesson.” He also admitted that the gun came from Tata, who is still at large.

On Sunday, members of the regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group arrested a third suspect, Cal, a motorcycle-for-hire driver, in his house in Talisay City. Seized from him was a .38-cal. revolver.