The village hall of Barangay Ermita in Cebu City where robbery suspect Lendon Abadinas was briefly detained before he was fatally shot. —TONEE DESPOJO
CEBU CITY—Investigators trying to complete the puzzle on the fatal shooting on Oct. 10 of a robbery suspect in a village here are finding some pieces that do not fit.
The biggest piece that won’t fit the puzzle was a story by village watchmen who claimed that suspect Lendon Abadinas tried to grab a gun from one of them when the watchmen arrested Abadinas. But Abadinas had been handcuffed behind his back.
The watchmen—Junniel Sanchez and Jerome Miral of drug hotspot Ermita village—claimed that in the scuffle with Abadinas, Sanchez was forced to shoot Abadinas and hit the suspect in the chest.
Although wounded, Abadinas ran to Carbon police station, also in Ermita, to seek help. Senior Supt. Joel Doria, head of the Cebu City police office, said Abadinas was able to tell police in Carbon that he had been shot by a village watchman.
Dead on arrival
Carbon police rushed Abadinas, listed as resident of Pardo village, to Cebu City Medical Center where the suspected burglar was declared dead.
Watchmen Sanchez and Miral are now detained at the city police stockade while the case is being investigated and pending the filing of a case against them at the city prosecutor’s office.
Sanchez, who surrendered to police, admitted he shot Abadinas because the suspect tried to grab his gun and tried to escape.
“We grappled for the gun. I fell down and I did not notice that I fired a shot at him. He ran away after he was hit,” he said in an interview.
But the Central Visayas office of the Commission on Human Rights and the city police found Sanchez’s story improbable—Abadinas had been handcuffed behind his back.
Also other detainees at the Ermita village hall said Abadinas was removed from detention past midnight on Oct. 10 supposedly to be transferred to Carbon police station.
Too noisy
The witnesses saw Abadinas’ mouth taped and his hands cuffed behind his back before he was led out by Sanchez and Miral. A few minutes after Abadinas was led out, gunshots were heard.
Watchman Miral, who also surrendered to police, admitted he taped Abadinas’ mouth to stop him from screaming inside his detention cell. But Miral denied he and Sanchez killed Abadinas, who also suffered bruises on the face.
Doria, the city police chief, said that while watchmen were allowed to arrest suspects, they were not allowed to detain them. Abadinas, said Doria, should have been immediately turned over to police.
A detainee at the village hall, who talked on condition of anonymity, said a watchman woke the detainees up around midnight of Oct. 10 and pulled Abadinas out of his cell.
Another detainee said he saw Miral beating Abadinas up and dragging the suspect outside. The witness said he heard Abadinas scream “Don’t harm me, I will not fight!”
The witnesses said Abadinas was not noisy in the detention cell, contrary to the watchmen’s story.
While village watchmen were prohibited from carrying guns, Sanchez said he was carrying a .45 caliber pistol to protect himself since Ermita village was considered a drug hotspot.
Miral said that by the time Abadinas was shot, he had already gone home.