Pubdate: Thu, 16 Dec 2004
Source: Sunstar Pangasinan (Philippines)
Copyright: 2004 Sunstar
Contact:  http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pangasinan/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1726
Author: FPM

SUSPECTED DRUG PUSHER SHOT DEAD

CALASIAO -- A man with a pending case in court for illegal drugs was gunned 
down Tuesday night while on his way to buy food in an eatery along McArthur 
Highway in Barangay San Miguel here.

Robert Purigay, 35, married and a resident of Barangay Buenlag in this 
town, was the third suspected drug pusher-user killed in this town.

Two unidentified men aboard a motorcycle shot Purigay at 9 p.m., about 10 
meters away from where Tomas Panay, the second victim of summary killing, 
was shot.

But Purigay had no dog tag, unlike Panay who a "diploma for a drug pusher."

"According to witnesses, the assailants wore bonnets and were riding in an 
old motorcycle without plate number. Except for the clothes they wore, the 
suspects have not been identified," said Chief Insp. Policarpio Cayabyab, 
police chief.

Purigay was walking towards a "pigar-pigar" establishment when the incident 
happened because it is a walking distance from the dental clinic of his wife.

The victim sustained gunshot wounds at the head and in the body.

Seven empty shells from caliber .45 pistol were recovered at the crime scene.

Cayabyab said Purigay was whisked at a hospital but was declared dead on 
arrival by attending physicians.

He said there is a possibility that the killers of Purigay and Panay 
belonged to the same group.

The police chief said that it appears that the two victims belonged to a 
group of drug pushers in this town, who had been the subject of successive 
operations of the municipal police.
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