A person of interest (POI) in the killing of actress Maritoni Fernandez’s sister was also killed in a drug bust on Sunday, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) confirmed.
Leandro Antonio Kanahashi or LA, the boyfriend of Aurora Ma. Moynihan, died after he reportedly shot it out with narcotics operatives in front of Bliss 2 Building on Mapagpakumbaba Street, Area 7 in Barangay Botocan, Quezon City.
Kanahashi was killed along with a still unidentified male companion while a member of the QCPD District Special Operation Unit, PO2 Julius Albao, was wounded in the shoot-out.
Seized from the two suspects were 10 sachets of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride), a .40-cal. pistol and a .38-cal. revolver.
The QCPD director, Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, confirmed that Kanahashi was one of the people they were looking for in connection with Moynihan’s death. She was found dead on Temple Drive corner Giraffe Street in Barangay Ugong Norte, Quezon City, on Sept. 10.
Footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera near the area showed her alighting from a dark gray sport utility vehicle (SUV) before she was repeatedly shot by someone inside the SUV which then sped off.
Eleazar added that the relationship betwen Kanahashi and Moynihan were established through the text messages on the cell phone recovered from the latter. Kanahashi was also one of the last persons seen with the victim before she was killed.
Sources claimed that the victim’s family had hinted about his possible involvement in her death.
“We are determining if these links and connection are valid through a ballistic cross matching on the firearm recovered from Kanahashi’s possession,” Eleazar said, adding that a gun of the same caliber used to kill Moynihan was recovered from Kanahashi.
The suspect was reportedly a notorious drug pusher operating in Quezon City and other areas in Metro Manila, supplying shabu and party drugs.
Moynihan, on the other hand, was arrested in 2013 in a drug den in Taguig City.