Man goes wild inside cockpit

CEBU, Philippines - Police is now hunting down a man who opened fire inside a cockpit arena in Sitio Pugon, Barangay Valladolid, Carcar City, last Friday afternoon.Police identified the suspect as Alsis Racoma, 43, and a resident of Mancao Village of the same barangay.

SPO1 Irving Avila, who happened to pass by the crime scene, tried to restrain Racoma from escaping by shooting the suspect’s get-away car, but the latter still managed to flee.

PO1 Junjie Lastimosa of Carcar City Police Station said the incident took place at 5:30 pm last Friday in sitio Pugon which was celebrating its annual fiesta.

Racoma reportedly got into a verbal tussle with one Brendo Apura inside the cockpit arena when the latter complained of his losses in the cockfight.

“Gi-declare sa referee na nadaog ang sunoy ni Racoma. Nagreklamo si Apura kay unfair kuno. Mao ‘tong nasuko si Racoma, nagkalalis sila ug gi-try niya ug pusil si Apura, (The referee declared Racoma’s fighting cock as the winner but Apura complained and said it was unfair. That angered Racoma. They had an argument and Racoma tried to shoot Apura.)” Lastimosa said.

Four shots reportedly rang inside the arena, Lastimosa said. This prompted the bettors and the people watching the cockfight to scamper away.

Fortunately, no one was injured, Lastimosa added.

At this juncture, Avila, who was assigned to the police station’s miscellaneous team, was driving a car on the way to their police station when he saw the people, mostly men, scampering in different directions out of the cockpit arena.

Among them, Avila saw Racoma, who is also his distant relative, carrying a firearm and running towards the road.

The policeman shouted at Racoma but the latter continued to run and got into a Nissan Vanette parked along the road.

Immediately after getting inside, the car tried to speed off but Avila was quick to shoot and hit the right front tire.

The car only managed to move at a short distance and stopped. Racoma and another man, believed to be the car driver, got off and ran away until they disappeared from Avila’s sight.

Avila then proceeded to the police station and asked for back-up.

With his colleagues, Avila went back to the crime scene and was no longer able to locate the suspect. They recovered four empty shells of a caliber .45 pistol, believed to be that of Racoma’s gun, inside the arena.

They also recovered the Nissan Vanette the suspect left behind. The car bore plate numbers GTX 277 and is now in the custody of the police.

The police are now looking for the suspect. (FREEMAN)