Murder suspect killed in shootout with cops in Ormoc

A member of the Scene of the Crime Operatives marks the area where police officers gunned down murder suspect Max Miro in a shootout on Saturday night in Barangay Bantigue, Ormoc City, Leyte. (Photo by ROBERT DEJON / Inquirer Visayas)

ORMOC CITY — One of the top henchmen of self-confessed drug lord Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr. was killed in an alleged shootout with police officers on Saturday night in Ormoc City, Leyte.

Max C. Miro allegedly put up a fight when the police went to his house in Purok 4, Barangay Bantigue in this city to serve his arrest warrant for murder in connection with the killing of retired police officers Alfredo Bucabuca in 2015.

Senior Insp. Joseph Joevil Young, chief of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU), said they went to the house of the suspect to serve the arrest warrant, which was issued by Judge Carlos Arguelles of the Regional Trial Court Branch 14 in Baybay City, Leyte.

According to Young, as soon as Miro saw the police officers, he went inside his room, took his gun and fired at them, prompting the officers to fire back.

The officers seized the suspect’s was .45-caliber pistol.

Young said they brought Miro to the hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Miro was facing charges for killing Bucabuca in an ambush in Barangay Macabug, Ormoc in 2015.

He was one of the Espinosa underlings who surrendered to Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, then police chief of Albuera, and identified the alleged protectors of the drug lord’s operation.

No charges were filed against him even if he surrendered three kilos of shabu to Espenido, now Ozamiz police chief. /atm