Probers examine footages of Davao City twin slays

Investigators were reviewing CCTV footages that purportedly show how a lawyer and her husband were shot and killed outside their home at Solariega Subdivision in Barangay Puan, Davao City, on July 14, police confirmed Wednesday, July 21.

Captain Rose Aguilar, spokesperson of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO), said the footages were sent to a cyber crime unit for enhancement and examination.

Aguilar said it would still be premature to make conclusions about the footages until the cyber crime investigators were done with their work.

She said police were also looking into reports about video clips supposedly posted on social media about the July 14 shooting deaths of lawyer Gilda Mahinay-Sapie and her husband Muhaimen Mohammad Sapie.

The couple had just concluded their radio program “Justice Redeemer” aired over Power Radio FM when they were shot apparently from afar. They were pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.

Aguilar said the CCTV footages could confirm the theory that the couple were killed by sniper fire especially if these captured the moment of the attack.

The cyber crime investigators form part of the Special Investigation Task Group Sapie created by Davao police regional director Brigadier General Filmore Escobal to speed up the investigation.

Escobal ordered the group to determine the motive for the twin killings, and to identify and bring the killers to justice, said Davao City police director Colonel Kirby Kraft.

Aguilar said one possible motive being looked into was that the killings were related to land dispute cases.

Sapie was a retired official at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) who offered on-air legal advice and discussed land disputes in her and her husband’s radio program.

In a July 20 letter to Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Davao chapter president Maceste Uy, Kraft called the killings “senseless” even as he assured the lawyers’ organization that the case has been prioritized.

Kraft said the police were doing their best to solve the case the soonest possible.

At Camp Crame, National Police chief General Guillermo Eleazar ordered the Davao Region’s police to thoroughly investigate the Sapie couple’s killing.

“Nagbigay na ako ng kautusan… na tutukan ang kasong ito at patuloy akong bigyan ng updates sa progreso ng imbestigasyon,” read part of Eleazar’s press statement.

(I have ordered that this be pursued that I be given continuous updates in the progress of the investigation.)

He said the shootings appeared well-planned.

Eleazar said the Davao police were looking at all possible angles, including cases on land disputes the couple had interest on.

“In the meantime, let us wait for the result of the investigation. Tiwala ako na mareresolba natin ito. (I am confident we will solve this),” he said. – Rappler.com