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ZAMBOANGA CITY—The Zamboanga City police has come out
with the artist’s sketch of one of the three persons,
believed to be Abu Sayyaf bandits, responsible for the
two explosions that rocked this city on Sunday morning.
Supt.
Jonathan Perez,
Zamboanga
City
police officer in charge, on Monday disclosed that the
sketch was made through the descriptions given by four
witnesses who saw the assailants before the first
explosion.
One of
the bombers was described as a male, more than 30 years
old, five feet and five inches in height, slim-built and
with brown complexion.
The
witnesses told the police that two of the bombers were
carrying a bag and sports gear when they entered the
compound of the Immaculate Concepcion Metropolitan
Cathedral just after the gate was opened to allow entry
for churchgoers, while the other one stayed outside and
remained seated on a motorcycle.
The
police learned one of the bombers immediately proceeded
upstairs where Mass was being held, but rushed
downstairs when the lights on the second floor were put
on.
The
second bomber, who was wearing a cap, blocked the path
of one of the witnesses who tried to tail the first
assailant, and engaged the witness in a conversation
when they met halfway down the spiral stairs.
That,
the police theorized, gave the first bomber the
opportunity to plant the bomb beneath an Isuzu pickup
parked just below the spiral stairs at the church’s
right wing.
The two
bombers were later seen rushing out of the church
compound and boarding a the waiting motorcycle.
A few
minutes later at about 4:25 a.m., the first bomb
exploded, damaging the parked Isuzu pickup owned by one
of the churchgoers and the Mitsubishi Adventure van of
Fr. Totong Soliva, one of the three administrators of
the Immaculate Concepcion Metropolitan Cathedral.
The
police said the second bomb, which the police believed
was supposed to be planted also in the church, exploded
in front of a building that houses a government office
and a bank on Veterans Avenue, 1.5 kilometers east of
the cathedral.
The
police said the suspects were rattled when they were
noticed by some of the people at the church and decided
to abandon the second bomb on Veterans Avenue.
No
casualties were reported in both bombings. |
