Cebuano cop shot dead in Abra

CEBU, Philippines — A Cebuano policeman assigned in Abra Province was shot dead Tuesday morning just a few steps from the police station.

Police Master Sergeant Frederick Fernandez Ybanez was reportedly at the yard of his boarding house above a food house in Barangay Poblacion, only about 40 meters from the police station in Villaviciosa, when two assassins, reportedly even having a snack there, shot him from behind.

Inspector Raquel Alonzo, a senior staff of the Abra police information office, said Ybanez just left the police station when he was shot dead at 8:40 a.m. Alonzo said policemen heard the gunshots and ran out to find Ybanez sprawled on the ground.

He was rushed to the Seares Memorial Hospital in Bangued, Abra's capital town, but did not make it alive.

Crime scene investigators found five spent shells for cal.45 and a spent shell for an 9-mm pistol.

Alonzo said Ybanez's service pistol and government-issued rifle are now taken in the custody of Villaviciosa town police.

Police operatives were sent to Pilar town, where the shooters reportedly fled, to conduct hot pursuit operation. They also put up checkpoints in Pilar and San Isidro towns but failed to arrest the suspects.

Investigators already have a person of interest in the case.  Philstar News Service, FPL (FREEMAN)