Army junior officer shot dead in Ozamiz City raid

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A junior Army officer suspected to be a member of the Kuratong Baleleng syndicate was shot dead as he reportedly fired on law enforcers trying to search his home in Ozamiz City on Thursday.

“The police officers were prompted to return fire that resulted in the death of the suspect,” Supt. Lemuel Gonda, the Northern Mindanao police spokesperson, said on Friday on the killing of 1Lt. Antony Theodore Tamparong.

Gonda said police officers came to Tamparong’s house to search for illegal firearms. They were backed by a warrant issued by Judge Edmundo Pintac of the Regional Trial Court in Ozamiz City.

But instead of peacefully allowing the search team, he said Tamparong — of the Army’s 903rd Community Defense Center based in Camp Dominguez in Sinacaban, Misamis Occidental — fired his .45 caliber pistol.

None of those who participated in the raid was harmed but Tamparong died in the ensuing gunfight, Gonda said.

The .45 caliber handgun that Tamparong used was recovered, along with various types of ammunition, identification cards, handcuffs, and other items.

In Pigcawayan, North Cotabato, a joint Army and police team engaged unidentified armed men in a firefight during a sweep, also on Thursday.

Supt. Romeo Galgo Jr., the spokesperson of the Central Mindanao police, said it was not immediately known if the armed men had suffered any casualty during the clash in Barangay Buricain, but they left behind such high-powered firearms as a .50-caliber Barret Sniper’s rifle; three M-14 assault rifles;, an M-16 rifle and a shotgun.

Also recovered in the aftermath of the firefight were 17 sachets of suspected shabu and cash amounting to P250,000. JE/rga