Cops probe lawyer’s slay

Pasay City police investigators are determining if a client of slain lawyer Thirdskee Lastimoso could be involved in his killing.

"We are looking into several angles but most probably, the killing may have been related to one of the victim’s cases," city police chief Senior Superintendent Oscar Catalan said in a phone interview yesterday.

Catalan said Lastimoso was said to be handling a sensitive case at the time of his death. He declined to elaborate.

Lastimoso, 47, of San Pedro, Laguna, had his own private practice. He is also a relative of former national police chief and now Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Roberto Lastimoso.

In a separate interview, Inspector Michael Chavez, chief of the Pasay Criminal Investigation Division (CID), added that a witness, in a sworn statement, said that hours before he was found dead last May 20, Lastimoso had told her that he had an appointment with a client in a Pasay hotel.

The woman, a girlfriend of Lastimoso’s nephew, told police that she chanced upon the victim at a mall across the hotel.

As they exchanged pleasantries, the woman said Lastimoso mentioned that he was about to meet a client at the hotel. It was around 4 p.m.

Lastimoso was found dead at around 7:30 p.m. near the Philippine National Bank (PNB) building on President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard.

The victim died on the spot from two gunshot wounds in the face and one in the shoulder.

Chavez also said police have tracked down a pick-up and a motorcycle that could have been used by the assailants. He declined to say where the police found the vehicles.

However, Chavez added a witness who told the police that he saw a pick-up and a motorcycle at the crime scene, was scheduled yesterday to identify the vehicles.

Police recovered the victim’s Nokia 3210 cellphone and two pieces of spent shells from a caliber .45 at the crime scene. – Nikko Dizon