The Chief of the National Police Major General Manuel Castro Castillo confirmed yesterday, Wednesday 30 April that Jose Francisco Duran de Castro, who was ambushed and shot dead on Tuesday morning, 29 April, was killed by a man accused of a murder committed in 2009 and where two others were also wounded.
Castro Castillo said that the victim, Duran de Castro, and another man that he did not name, had been threatened by the killer not to appear at the trial, “the other man stopped attending, but Duran de Castro did not stop testifying and they carried out their threats.” The Police have identified Manuel Osiris Quinones de la Rosa (El Bambino) and Junior Francisco Feliz Feliz, who the police chief called upon to give themselves up any way they choose, in order to be questioned about the case and to proceed with the consequences. Moreover the two men are accused due to their involvement in an armed robbery, committed in the dawn hours of 19 December 2010 in the Simon Bolivar barrio, in which a delivery driver, Carlos Manuel Coronado, was killed and Jose Ramon Martin Mendez, the colmado owner, was wounded, an incident in which Duran de Castro was a witness for the prosecution during the trial.
On Tuesday morning, 29 April, Duran de Castro was riddled with bullet wounds after being shot by one of three men who were traveling on two motorcycles and who surprised him as he was getting out of a gray Mitsubishi pickup truck outside the “La Colmenita” school.
Police Chief Manuel Castro Castillo told Listin Diario reporters that the mastermind of this crime was Quinones de la Rosa. He also said that he could not understand how a person already convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison was out on the streets after another court changed the sentence. “It is unfortunate that an individual who has been sentenced to 30 years for homicide, and who is also charged with other crimes, could be free to commit another horrible crime.”