Police: One of gray sedan-riding suspects nabbed

POLICE yesterday claimed they arrested one of the suspects in the series of drive-by shootings Cebu City.

Police was referring to one of the gunmen blamed for the series of attacks in the city while riding a gray sedan.

Bloods gang member Rhene “Insik” Aligato Baclaan, 22, of sitio Suran in barangay Quiot, Cebu City, was arrested by police in Minglanilla town.

Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, chief of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said witnesses identified Baclaan as the one who shot and wounded three Crips gang members using a .45 pistol  while on board a gray sedan in barangay Kinasang-an last Feb. 15.

Police confiscated from the suspect a .45 pistol, a bonnet, a  ball cap, empty shells of a .45 pistol and other ammunition.

Police said  Baclaan was a hitman of Bloods gang.

Police also tagged Baclaan as the one who shot dead a 14-year-old boy, and wounded another, both  rival Crips gang members, in sitio Banawa, barangay Guadalupe, last Feb. 12.

Police said Baclaan also shot and wounded a Crips member in November 2011 in the same barangay.

PO1 Robert Amascual of the Waterfront police station said witnesses reported Baclaan a few months ago for allegedly shooting a Crips member.

A policeman also implicated the suspect in a shooting incident involving a taxi driver in barangay Bulacao.

In an interview with Cebu Daily News, Baclaan admitted the Feb. 15 shooting attack in barangay Kinasang-an but denied the  other allegations against him.

Baclaan said he was on foot and wasn’t riding a gray sedan when he shot the three Crips members in Kinasang-an.

He also admitted using a .38 revolver and not a .45 pistol as police claimed.

Bacla-an said he was only taking revenge for a previous attack by a Crips member who shot him in the nape of the neck.

He said the bullet was still stuck there.

The suspect’s mother Nita Baclaan said her son was not involved in other crimes aside from the one he admitted.

“Mouli ko inig ka gabii gikan mangompra sa Carbon, naa raman tawon na akong anak sa balay (I always find my son at home every night I get back from Carbon market),” the mother said./correspondent chito aragon