A deep penetration police agent was shot dead Thursday night in Purok Sampaguita, Sitio Canday-ong in Barangay Calindagan, Dumaguete City.

Police identified the fatality as Felixberto Somoza II, 36, of Magatas in Sibulan town, Negros Oriental. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds when three suspects, who were in their 20s and 30s, shot him with .45 caliber pistols.

Somoza was a member of the radio communications group React, married with two little children. Law enforcement units admitted that he was a deep penetration agent in Canday-ong, whose activity resulted to the arrests of several drug personalities in the area, adding he may have been pinpointed as the informant in the latest drug operation in the barangay, particularly involving the Melon residence.

He was seen Thursday morning being handcuffed by elements of the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group and the Special Operations Group, as part of a fake arrest to bail him out from being identified as working for the government.

But when he returned to the area past 7 p.m. to get his motorcycle, that was left behind when he was “arrested”, three suspects, who may have been waiting for him because of the vehicle, opened fire and two of them took turns shooting him even when he was already down.

Dumaguete police chief, Supt. Jovito Atanacio, supervised the investigation of the sixth shooting incident since he assumed office July 23.

Initial investigation showed the three suspects bought refreshments from a store about three to five meters away from the crime scene, and waited for Somoza to come out from another store where he had bought cigarets.

Atanacio said the recovered slugs and fired empty shells will be cross-matched with the evidences recovered from previous shooting incidents to determine if the same firearm was used in the crime.*JG

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