This came three days after Chief Insp. Leo Ajero, officer-in-charge of the Kidapawan City Police, released to media the cartographic sketches of the suspected gunmen.
Ajero, in a radio interview, identified one of the suspects as Jamir, more or less 22 years old, stands 5’8”, weighs 60 kilograms, and has straight flat top hair.
Another unidentified suspect, a John Doe, is an Ilonggo-speaking man who stands 5’ 6” and weighs 65 kgs. He has fair and brown complexion, has a freshly shaven beard and mustache, according to the sketches.
This John Doe, Ajero said, drives a yellow TS Suzuki motorcycle with plate number ending in 5442, which they used as their get-away vehicle after killing Durana.
On Sept. 19, around 11:35 p.m., Durana was drinking with his friends inside D’ Noks KTV Bar along Quezon Blvd. here when he figured in a heated altercation with one of the suspects.
According to the witnesses, Durana and the gunmen fought over the latter’s treatment over one of his female friends who joined him in his table.
Believing that they were humiliated, Jamir grabbed his stainless colored pistol and shot Durana. His companion also got his pistol and did the same thing on Durana. They immediately fled away after the shooting using a motorcycle.
Reports said the two suspects were members of an Army unit operating in North Cotabato. Commanders of two Army battalions here, however, denied they have soldiers that figured in a killing in the city.
Both Lt. Col. Victor Tan, commander of the 39th Infantry Battalion, and Lt. Col. John Oswald Buco, of the 40IB, said that their men “are all accounted for. Not one among our men is missing or had gone AWOL or absent without official leave.”
Buco has also denied he has a soldier named Jamir.
But Ajero assured relatives of Durana that justice would be served and that there would be no whitewash in the investigations.
Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco has released an initial cash reward of P30,000 to those who can help the police identify or name the suspects. “This reward system has become effective in resolving crimes here. We hope this will work with the Durana killing,” stressed Ajero. (Malu Cadeliña Manar / MindaNews)