Gun, shabu, dagger and sting money recovered from suspect. Contributed photo
ZARAGOZA, Nueva Ecija – A 43-year-old drug suspect from remote Gen. Natividad town who reportedly transacted with an undercover policeman was killed in an armed encounter in Barangay Sto. Rosario Young here at about 12:05 a.m. Thursday, police said.
Acting town police chief Major Jaime Ferrer identified the suspect as Al Taberna, single, a resident of Barangay Balaring, Gen. Natividad.
The armed encounter happened during a buy-bust operation “after the subject sensed he was transacting with a police poseur-buyer,” Ferrer said in a report to Nueva Ecija police director Col. Jaime Santos.
Ferrer said Taberna suddenly fired a .38 revolver against the police operatives which prompted them to retaliate in defense of themselves.
Police said the suspect was fatally hit causing his instantaneous death while no injury was recorded among the police operatives.
Forensic investigators from the Nueva Ecija police crime laboratory recovered from the scene 16 sachets of suspected shabu, the .38 hand gun and the suspect’s motorcycle.
