Cops review CCTV clips in Herra slay case

MANILA, Philippines - Makati City police investigators are securing and reviewing footage taken by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras around the gym where former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agent John Herra was shot dead Saturday, an official said yesterday.

Chief Inspector Reycon Garduque of the city police’s criminal investigation division told The STAR that they have secured CCTV footage from a camera installed at a building near the Republic of Fitness Gym along General Malvar street in Barangay Bangkal.

Herra, a regular at the gym, was shot twice in the face and twice in the body by a man who pretended to be a customer.

He said the gym has no CCTV cameras but investigators hope that the surveillance footage they acquired would help them identify the gunman and his accomplice, who drove the getaway motorcycle.

“We could have identified the gunman if the gym only had a CCTV camera. But the footage from the nearby CCTV camera could help us identify the suspects,” he said.

Garduque said the second man was seen on a parked motorcycle near the gym just before the shooting happened.

“It is possible that the gunman escaped (using) the motorcycle,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Makati police coordinated with the Philippine National Police’s Crime Laboratory to create a computer-generated image of the gunman.

The NBI will also produce a separate sketch of the gunman based on the descriptions given by witnesses, Garduque said.

He earlier described Herra’s killer as a man about 5’4” in height and of medium build, clad in a white undershirt, denim pants and a baseball cap.

Garduque said probers have yet to find out the motive for the shooting.

“We are still looking at all the possible motives although we are not discounting the possibility that this could be linked to his past at the NBI,” he said.