A shabu dealer wanted for four criminal cases and his aide were killed, while two policemen and a Marine private were wounded in a shootout in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, on Wednesday morning, October 15.
Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters that personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station were about to serve Samsudin Usman warrants for his arrest in Sitio Lalaog, Barangay Semba, when he and his henchmen drew their guns and opened fire, provoking a gunfight.
Barangay Semba is less than 10 kilometers southwest of Cotabato City, where the regional capitol of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is located.
De Guzman said the police units out to arrest Usman, led by the chief of the Datu Odin Sinsuat police, Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, and his deputy, Capt. Sammy Paning, were forced to immediately neutralize him and his aide, Piong Mindo, when they fired at the team that was to show him the warrants for his arrest.
Usman and Mindo died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the brief clash that left Paning and his subordinate, Cpl. Marson Quijano, and Private Alex Bajoyo of the Marine Battalion Landing Team-6, wounded.
Bajoyo was part of a team from the MBLT-6, a unit of the Navy’s 1st Marine Brigade, that provided tactical support for the operation that turned violent.
Usman’s companions managed to escape, but one of them, his relative Barry Usman, yielded peacefully to combined operatives from the Datu Odin Sinsuat police and different units of PRO-BAR tasked to arrest him based on warrants from various courts.
Usman was wanted for murder, drug trafficking, extortion, and illegal possession of firearms and explosives pending before different courts in Cotabato City.
Local officials told reporters Usman’s slain follower, Mindo, was his transporter of shabu to contacts in Datu Odin Sinsuat and nearby barangays in Cotabato City.
Madin said policemen seized Usman’s 5.56 Bushmaster combat rifle, ammunition, and two-way radio used to communicate with his accomplices in the trafficking of shabu and marijuana.
Madin also confirmed that they found ?34,000 worth of shabu, a weighing scale, an M16 assault rifle, and a .45-caliber pistol in Usman’s hideout.
De Guzman said the supposedly peaceful operation that went awry was launched after local officials and community leaders in Barangay Semba reported Usman’s presence in the area the day before.