A community leader from the Cristo Rey barrio of Santo Domingo was shot and killed while sitting in front of his house. Franklin Perez Berroa was shot seven times from a vehicle that stopped on the street just outside his house. According to local reports, Perez Berroa was a community leader who would not allow criminals to operate in his neighborhood. The police are investigating the case and hope to have a report shortly.
The magistrate at the Third Court of Instruction for Santo Domingo province ordered coercion measures against the two people accused in the fraud case involving RD$8 million in spare parts for OMSA buses. Juan Isidro Contreras and Roberto de Jesus Genere Almanzar are accused of “irregularities” in the purchase of spare parts for the buses serving Santo Domingo and Santiago. Both men were granted bail, but are prevented from leaving the country and must report to the prosecutor every Friday.
The district attorney for Santo Domingo has requested remand for the accused killer of Estaneslao Genao Madera who was shot five times while in his car. Francisco Almonte Diaz was accused of the crime because the businessman had denied his request for a loan. After his arrest, Almonte told police that he and Genao Madera had both been at the Bayona Cockfighting Club and that they left together in Genao’s car. The police also arrested Almonte’s girlfriend, seizing RD$99,000 taken from Genao in the process.
Catalino Rodriguez was killed for “reasons of passion” according to a police source, but further comments were not forthcoming, and the police continue to investigate the case.
In Tamayo, Baoruco province, a man who had killed another man during a knife fight was killed by an angry mob. The victim of the mob, Carlos Silfa Pena, 30, killed Francis Vargas Reyes, 18, during an argument in the Hato Nuevo neighborhood in Tamayo. According to police reports, Silfa Pena had blunt trauma wounds as well as penetrating wounds inflicted by the crowd in vengeance for the young man’s death.
PLD congressional spokesperson Elias Serulle had his SUV stolen from the parking lot at Los Prados Country Club yesterday. It is a red Mitsubishi with the official license plate O 2300.