Motorcycle-riding armed men shot and killed an assistant city prosecutor as he was about to board his car outside his house in Caloocan City, at 7:35 a.m. yesterday.
Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna, Caloocan Police chief, said Caloocan Assistant Prosecutor Diosdado Azarcon, 57, was gunned down in front of his residence on Galauran Street, at 9th Avenue, Barangay 63.
“The prosecutor was about to ride his car when two gunmen suddenly appeared. A witness said that one of them pulled out a gun and shot him,” Bersaluna said.
He said the prosecutor sustained gunshot wounds in the head and in the right leg.
A witness told police that the driver of the motorcycle was wearing a helmet, black jacket, and denim pants; while the one who shot Azarcon was wearing a gray t-shirt and denim pants.
It was learned that the prosecutor was about to attend a flag-raising ceremony at the Caloocan Hall of Justice at the time of the attack.
Police believe that the gunmen studied the daily routine of Azarcon before killing him.
A 68-year-old neighbor of Azarcon said the slain prosecutor was kind and friendly to all his neighbors.
“He was my neighbor for more than a year. He was very nice and friendly to all, that is why we are so shocked when we saw him dead near his car,” the female neighbor said.
“We thought an addict was being attacked, but it shocked us when we saw our nice neighbor lying on the street dead,” she added.
The neighbor said the prosecutor and his family have been living a simple life in their rented house.
“They are also paying rent P10,000 a month for a two-storey apartment,” the neighbor said.
Police investigators recovered from the crime scene three spent shells of a still unidentified gun.
The family of the prosecutor refused to be interviewed.
Police said have yet to establish if Azarcon’s slay was related to his job.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation has also been tapped to probe the incident.
Justice Undersecretary Erickson Balmes said the “NBI have dispatched a team to investigate” the ambush of Azarcon.
Azarcon is the fourth prosecutor killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016.
The first was Mati City Prosecutor Rolando Acide who was gunned down outside Mati City Hall of Justice in October last year.
Last January, Quezon City Prosecutor Noel Mingoa was shot at close range outside a restaurant on Commonwealth Avenue.
Then Surigao City Prosecutor Manuel Navarro Tesioma was killed outside his home last February.
(JEL SANTOS & JEFFREY DAMICOG)