A front-page story in the Diario Libre asserts that one member of the National Police has died every 6.2 days so far this year. The somber statistics include the deaths of one second lieutenant, three sergeants, one corporal and three privates, and makes note that two of the total nine deceased officers were killed by other members of the military or police. Police Sergeant Major Luis Hernandez, a 34-year-old bodyguard for the prosecutor of Salcedo, was shot and killed on New Year?s Day. Another sergeant, whose killers have since been captured, was stabbed to death on the 20 January. On the same day that Private Reynaldo Castillo killed Corporal Adriano Liranzo in a fit of jealousy, a well-known delinquent in Santiago killed Sergeant Elvis Liberato Cuello with a knife. One of the most publicized cases was that involving the police sergeant Domingo Batista, who was wounded in Capotillo and who languished in a coma for four days before passing away. Another widely reported incident was that of businessman Domingo Guzman, who shot and killed the chief homicide investigator en Las Terrenas, Second Lieutenant Jose Ramon Pujols.