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Man ‘beheads’ neighbor, shot dead by cop

February 10, 2023 Alfred P. Dalizon 263 views

THE daughter’s horror was unimaginable. She had just seen her neighbor carrying a sack which contained her father’s head. Just moments earlier, the suspect had hacked the victim into two pieces and hurled the decapitated body into a ravine.

A farmer killed and beheaded his neighbor before trying to attack officers out to arrest him in Nabunturan, Davao de Oro on Wednesday, Police Regional Office 11 director, Brigadier General Benjamin H. Silo Jr. said yesterday. A responding policeman shot the suspect dead.

The incident took place shortly after members of the Nabunturan Municipal Police Station (MPS) responded to a report regarding a hacking incident in Barangay Bukal around 6 a.m. Wednesday, Silo said.

It turned out that a daughter of the hacking victim identified as Joel Avila, a 58-year-old farmer, personally appeared at the local police station with her policewoman-cousin to report the hacking incident.

The victim’s daughter, identified as Juvelyn Avila, 23, a pharmacy assistant, said she was shocked when she saw suspect Jovanie Pedere carrying a sack containing the head of her father around 10 a.m. last Tuesday.

The young Avila reported the incident to the local police around 6 a.m. Wednesday prompting a team of officers led by Captain Joseph Corea to investigate.

Members of the Nabunturan MPS and a SWAT team from the Davao de Oro Provincial Police Office reached the site around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday as they had to walk on foot.

They later found the headless body of the victim in a ravine in the area while the latter’s head was found around 500 meters away from the first location.

Silo said while officers were investigating, they received information that the suspect was seen in a hut near the crime scene. When they came to check the report, the policemen found the suspect, a resident of Purok 14 in Bgy. Camanlangan in New Bataan municipality, sitting.

When they asked him to yield peacefully, the suspect immediately drew his bolo and rushed towards the officers with his weapon raised prompting one officer to fire at him.

The suspect suffered gunshot wounds in the body and died on the spot.

Recovered from his possession were the bolo he used in killing and beheading his victim as well as an improvised spear. The motive behind the beheading incident is still being investigated, said Silo.

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