ILOILO City – A job hire of the city government was shot to death by unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants while attending a birthday party in Barangay Tacas, Jaro district.
The 30-year-old Felix Argenal Jr. died of gunshot wounds on the body and head.
Jaro Police station chief Captain Eduardo Siacon said the shooting happened around 11 p.m. on Friday.
Argenal was attending a birthday party in the house of Lino Londres and they were having a drinking session, Siacon added.
According to Siacon, four armed men, wearing helmets and face masks, alighted from their motorcycles in front of Londres’ house. The two back riders then went inside.
One of the suspects peppered Argenal with bullets.
“Based on our investigation, two back riders were seen in the area. One of them shot the victim and told the people inside to drop while his accomplice served as lookout,” Siacon told Panay News.
Recovered from the crime scene were three empty shells of a .45-caliber pistol.
Siacon said that Argenal was tagged as a “high-value” drug target and was allegedly under the groups of Ernesto Bolivar and Richard Previndido.
“Argenal was also tagged as the suspect in the shooting of Noli Cayanan sometime in 2015, but the case was settled,” he said.
Siacon also said the victim was linked in the killing of a provincial survey aide of the Department of Agrarian Reform 6 last June 6 in Barangay Tagbak, Jaro district.
“He (Argenal) was our suspect in killing Salario through his tattoo on his left foot but the case was not filed because of lack of evidence and witnesses. He was also reportedly a gun-for-hire suspect. We could not really ascertain the motive because of his involvements in several criminal cases,” Siacon added.
As of now, the police are still gathering evidences and looking for the witnesses who were in the area when the victim was killed.
“We are trying to get the footage from the closed-circuit television in the vicinity and hopefully we can identify them (suspects),” Siacon said./PN
