BANGUED, Abra – Police operatives are now conducting massive manhunt operations against the identified suspect in the stray bullet incident in Tayum town that resulted to the untimely death of an 11-year old girl from barangay Bumagcat during the New Year revelry.
Senior Superintendent Albertlito S. Garcia, director of the Abra provincial police office, identified the suspect in the stray bullet incident as Henry Trinidad Tejero, a driver who is a resident of barangay Deet, Tayum, Abra.
He said two cases, specifically homicide, alarm and scandal aggravated by the use of unlicensed firearm, were already filed against the suspect before the provincial prosecutor’s office awaiting for its final resolution and elevation to the court for the issuance of the necessary warrant of arrest.
“We were able to positively identify the suspect because of the strong pieces of evidence we were able to gather and backed up by the consistent testimonies of the four witnesses who were first subjected to polygraph tests before being accepted as witnesses to the case,” Garcia stressed.
The police official said the P200,000 cash reward to whoever could provide probers with the vital information that would lead to the arrest of the suspect is still available and will be released to the informants once their information will lead to the arrest of the suspect who might have gone in hiding after he was positively identified by the witnesses to the incident.
Earlier, The Guardians for Reform Advancement and Cooperation for Economic Prosperity (GRACE), an anti-criminality organization operating in the region, raised P100,000 as the initial cash reward for the arrest of the suspect while the Abra Provincial Peace and Order Council raised another P100,000 purposely to draw the support of the public to help in the resolution of the crime and the arrest of the suspect.
It can be recalled that Jercy Buenafe Tabaday, 11, A Grade IV pupil died after she was hit by a stray bullet that reportedly came from the suspect’s firearm which he fired in the air during the New Year revelry. Tabaday was reportedly standing outside their residence with the members of her family when she suddenly fell on the ground with blood oozing from the back of her head.
Concerned relatives and neighbors immediately rushed the victim to the Abra provincial hospital for medical treatment but she died while undergoing close medical supervision. Attending physicians recovered from her head a slug of a calibre .45 pistol which the suspect used in the indiscriminate firing of his firearm.
According to the police official, the body of the victim has yet to be laid to rest as her family is still awaiting the arrival of her mother who is reportedly abroad as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW).
Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin ordered all police operating units in the province to exhaust all possible measures within the ambit of the law to arrest the suspect so that he will answer for the crime he committed and to serve as a lesson for other residents not to unscrupulously fire their firearms during the celebration of the Yuletide season.
By Dexter A. See
