German wanted for fraud dies in hospital after fall

ILOILO CITY—The chase by city police of a German national, who fled after shooting authorities were out to arrest him for fraud cases in Germany, ended in a hospital in Boracay where the German was brought and died after falling off a 40-foot cliff as he was trying to flee.

Rodulf Wilhelm Stolz, 65, died from internal injuries more than an hour after he was brought for treatment to a hospital in the capital town of Kalibo, Aklan, which has jurisdiction over Boracay.

Police said Stolz fell off the rocky cliff at the back of his house in Sitio Sugod in Barangay Manoc-Manoc after he fired a shot and wounded an immigration agent who was serving a deportation order against him.

“We tried to call out to him not to run but he slipped and fell while holding on to tree branches,” said Senior Insp. Nilo Morallos, head of the Boracay Tourist Assistance Center (BTAC), the island’s police force.

Immigration agent Rodrigo Oamil Jr. was wounded in the shoulder and was brought to the Saint Gabriel Hospital in the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan after Stolz opened fire when the agents and policemen tried to arrest him, Morallos said.

Four Bureau of Immigration agents and four BTAC policemen went to Stolz’s residence in Barangay Manoc-Manoc to serve a deportation order for several fraud cases filed against him in Germany.

Stolz’s Filipino wife opened the door and met the team but Stolz suddenly drew a handgun and fired a shot hitting Oamil.

The group retreated and brought Oamil for treatment while they waited for reinforcement, which included Coast Guard personnel, to arrive.

The policemen later contacted Stolz’s wife by phone and she agreed to convince her husband to surrender.

But when the group again approached the house, Stolz suddenly ran to the back of the house.

“He apparently wanted to escape by climbing down the cliff but he slipped,” said Morallos.

According to Morallos, Stolz was still conscious at the bottom of the cliff and was shouting for help.

Stolz lost consciousness aboard an ambulance that was taking him to the medical clinic.

Stolz has been living in Boracay since 2008 and owned several lots which he rented out, according to Morallos.