Sergeant dies in Zamboanga City shooting incident

January 6, 2021

A sergeant was killed in a shooting incident inside a military camp in Zamboanga City on Tuesday night.

In a report, the Zamboanga regional police said incident happened inside the headquarters of the 54th Engineering Brigade located in Barangay Lower Cabatangan, Zamboanga City at 8:45 pm.

The victim was identified as Technical Sergeant Joseph Cutaran, 46, of the Philippine Army and resident of Brgy Culianan, Zamboanga City, while the suspect was Private First Class Herbert Antonio, 31, a resident of Logoy Diutay, Brgy Talon-Talon of the same city.

The report said Cutaran died after sustaining two gunshot wounds in his head.

Based on the report, Cutaran confronted Antonio who was allegedly under the influence of alcohol after he failed to do his job as a duty personnel to stop the overflow of the elevated water tank.

"(The suspect) got irked and pulled out his firearm and shot the victim twice on his head which caused his instantaneous death," the report stated.

During the investigation, authorities recovered two empty shells believed to be from a 9mm pistol.

Personnel of  Zamboanga City Police Station 7 is looking for Antonio. Robina Asido/DMS