Police investigators are currently zeroing in on the circumstances of a red car that appeared outside the residence of Oscar Bucol Jr., village chief of Barangay Tres de Mayo here, just before he was gunned down on the evening of Nov. 25.
Lt. Col. Venus Ortoyu, spokesperson of the police’s Special Investigation Task Group (SITG)-Bucol, said details about the red car could provide significant lead to other vital details of Bucol’s killing.
Bucol was on Facebook Live and his camera captured the red car’s arrival outside his house. A few moments later, a shot rang out and Bucol cried for help as he was hit.
The village chief, who had a 300,000 following on Facebook mainly due to his public commentaries, died as he was taken to a hospital.
Investigators have summoned the footage of CCTV cameras of residents and of the local government’s public safety office in the area to establish the movements of the vehicle in question, before, during and after the shooting.
Probers also wanted to establish whether the vehicle was used to ferry the gunman to the area and as a getaway car.
The day after the killing, Col. Leo Ajero, Davao del Sur police director, said that an initial assessment of the case generated several persons of interest, all mentioned by the victim in his earlier social media posts and pronouncements.
Ortoyu has not yet responded to questions whether the SITG-Bucol are following the same initial findings in its probe of the killing.
Lawyer Israelito Torreon, counsel for the Bucol family, said that apart from the SITG-Bucol, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is being requested to do a parallel probe into the case.
Torreon told reporters that this was upon the request of the family to ensure that there will be no stones unturned and that a foolproof case against the perpetrators could be established.
Meanwhile, Ortoyu revealed that Lt. Col. Peter Glenn Ipong, who was relieved as Digos police chief after the incident, and 20 other police officers had shown no trace of gunpowder burns after undergoing a paraffin test as part of the ongoing investigation