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Police arrested three suspects in Sunday?s robbery and killing of a 14-year-old altar boy on Monday night.
Arrested were the self-confessed gunman, 22-year-old Joypher Tatoy, and his two companions, Marvin Abella Sanchez, 25, and Jason (not his real name) a minor.
Witnesses identified them as responsible for the killing of Carlo Sacedon Mangitngit, who had struggled to keep his cellphone which was grabbed by the three who were on board a motorcycle in barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City.
The three suspects are now detained at the city police stockade pending the filing of charges. .
Tatoy told police he had no intention of killing the boy and that accidentally pulled the gun trigger.
?Wa nako to gituyo pagpusil, tion ra unta ko akoa, nibuto man (I didn?t mean to shoot him, just poke the gun at him, but it went off),? said Tatoy.
He said it was Sanchez who planned the robbery while he and Jason were just asked to accompany him without knowing where they would go.
Tatoy admitted that he was the one who gunned down the boy.
The three of them were drunk at the time, Tatoy admitted.
But Sanchez said all of them were in on the plan.
Sanchez and Jason Capacite Villarma, 18, were initially arrested for a separate offense for the stabbing of a PUJ driver Fortunato Ibon.
Chief Inspector Mario Monilar, chief of Guadalupe police station, said they picked them up for questioning based on tips from concerned citizens
Later on, they got new information pointing them to Sanchez.
The arrest was made by a joint operation by the Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) of Guadalupe police station and Criminal Investigation and Detective Management Branch (CIDMB).
It was 8 a.m. when the victim was texting while walking along Limkakeng Street in , Horseshoe Hill in barangay Guadalupe.
He was on his way to buy ?kamunggay? at the public market when three masked men on board a black XRM motorcyle grabbed his with no plate number grabbed his cellphone.
The motorcycle was recovered by police at the residence of Sanchez along McArthur Boulevard.
Tatoy, who was arrested in Carcar City, said he left the gun used in the crime in sitio Tambis, Banawa Guadalupe. The gun with seven live bullets was eventually recovered.
Early yesterday morning, Jason surrendered to the police.
The victim?s 3310 Nokia cellular phone worth P500 was recovered from the uncle of one of the suspects. The phone had been pawned for P200.
Tatoy said they used the P200 to buy more liquor. ?Giinom ra namo ang kita,? said Tatoy.
The victim died of a single bullet wound to the head.
Cebu City Police CHief Patrocinio Comendador Jr. commended his men for solving the case adn said police visibility should be intensified in Guadalupe because it is one of the barangays with a street gang problem.
Sanchez is a member of Bloods gang, said police.
However, Tatoy and and Jason denied being members of street gangs.
Chief Inspector George Ylanan , CIDMB chief, said that Sanchez and Tayot had been jailed before for previous offenses.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who lives in Guadalupe, welcomed the arrests.
?I felt relieved (to know) that the police is pursuing this I know many of them (police) are demoralized with the situation now (where SPO1 Adonis Dumpit is serving a jail term for shooting at a suspected robber). I'm glad they (the police) found them (the suspects),? said Osmena.
The mayor said he sympathized with the family of Mangitngit, who served as an altar boy at the Alliance of Two Hearts Parish in Banawa.
Mayor Osmena said the city government would extend P10, 000 financial aid for the boy?s burial.
Businessman Jonathan Guardo also donated the boy's coffin.
Guadalupe barangay captain Eugenio Faelnar also made a personal donation to the boy's family.
Mayor Osmena said that in a way, Mangingit was not a stranger to him. He said the boy wmay have been one of the beneficiaries of the vestments which he recently donated to the parish.
The boy is not completely alien to me because the Alliance of Two Hearts parish is my parish. They asked me to pay for their uniform,? he said.
Meanwhile, relatives of Mangitngit said they want the suspects punished.
His classmates from the Abellana National High School attended his wake yesterday.
Alexander Ligan, Mangitngit's classmate, said in an ABS-CBN report that he wanted the Juvenile Justice Law amended so that underage suspects could be meted appropriate penalties.
?They can no longer bring him back to life,? said Ligan. EDISON DELOS ANGELES
