Police Sergeant Ramon Dario Contreras, known more infamously as “Cabrerita,” was gunned down by at least three assassins yesterday evening as he was pulling into a Shell station on Estrella Sadhala Avenue in the Las Colinas section of Santiago de los Caballeros. The Mitsubishi Lancer showed at least eight bullet holes in its dark blue paint. According to the La Informacion, eyewitnesses said that at least three men were seen shooting at the sergeant’s automobile as he entered the fill station. Ironically, at the same time that Cabrerita was being assassinated, the DR’s Attorney General was giving a speech at PUCMM’s main campus in which he denounced the evident growth of organized crime in Santiago and revealed that the authorities had uncovered 40 killings planned by criminals to “settle accounts” or “clear the way” for more crimes. Sergeant Cabrera was notorious for his participation in “alleged” armed encounters with well-known criminal elements. The usual outcome was that the criminals turned up dead. Cabrera was currently under investigation for the use of deadly force, and was considered to be one of the real “hatchetmen” of the police force, while to others he was a hero. The Cibao-Central region of the National Police has begun an investigation into the killing and several people have been taken into custody.
The murder has made news headlines because radio broadcaster, Euri Cabral said this morning on his “Gobierno de la Manana” very popular morning show that he had visited the district attorney’s office to express his fear that Cabrerita could be murdered. Cabral survived an attempt at his life recently. Hoy newspaper reports that Contreras had been under arrest and his “death squadron” was subject to questioning for suspicion that he had participated in the assault on Cabral’s car.