By Froilan Gallardo
Special Correspondent

POLICE investigators said one of the gunmen went up to Roland Sherwin Uy as he lay on a folding chair and shot him at close range at the family-owned quarry in Zone 1, Barangay Pagatpat last Thursday.

City police spokesperson Major Evan Viñas said Uy, 45, was already dying from five-gunshot wounds inflicted by another gunman when his companion came to finish him off.

Viñas said the victim, who is the son of incumbent 1st District Rolando Uy, died on the spot from six gunshot wounds sustained to his body, arms, and head.

“This was the initial result of the police investigation on the crime scene,” Viñas said.

Police have formed a task force composed of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the National Bureau of Investigation, and investigators from the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office to investigate the killing of Uy and the quarry caretaker, Samuel Tabalan, 75 years old.

Viñas said PNP Regional Director Brig. Gen. Rolando Anduyan would have to approve the task force composition of law-enforcement agencies before it starts its formal investigation.

Mayor Oscar Moreno has offered a still unspecified amount of money for any information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators.

Moreno who visited the crime scene last Thursday called the killings “cruel and senseless.”

“It was so barbaric that I could not believe it happened in our city,” Moreno told reporters during his press briefing yesterday.

Viñas said the Scene of the Crime Operatives found eight empty cal. 45 shells from the crime scene in Barangay Pagatpat.

“Uy suffered six wounds on his body, head, and arms while Tabalan had two wounds on his body and one wound on his head,” Viñas said.

He said upon examination of the bullets in the body of Uy, probers found five of these were fired from the same gun while the sixth bullet was similar to those found on the body of Tabalan.

Viñas said this lead the probers to conclude that one of the gunmen came over to a dying Uy to finish him off.

A witness, Rubie Alayuay, the driver of the victim, said the gunmen left on a motorcycle after the shooting.