The Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigation Bureau is currently working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the Jan. 2 homicide incident at the J&C Poker establishment in China Town, and is optimistic that it would soon make an arrest.<\/p>\n
According to CIB officer-in-charge Edward Manalili, the FBI is assisting in the investigation, trying to enhance the quality of the video in hopes that a better picture will be made available.<\/p>\n
Manalili said he believes authorities would be able to apprehend the suspect.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we got the video and the picture of the individual, its just a matter of putting the name to that picture,\u201d he said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Manalili said investigators are also being assisted in printing flyers in the Chinese language to reach the Chinese community for tips.<\/p>\n
He said investigators have received several tips on the case and they are currently \u201cmoving forward with the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Footage from the scene are also being reviewed by investigators. Footage from days before the incident are also being reviewed. The footages, however, do not contain audio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at the video right now, and the system they got\u2026can record up to two weeks at a time, so we\u2019re reviewing the videos.<\/p>\n
He said the poor quality of the footage makes it hard for authorities to determine the age of the suspect.<\/p>\n
Based on the investigation, Manalili said the crime occurred at approximately 7:30am. No one else was in the establishment, which operates 24 hours daily. The victim was discovered by another employee of the establishment who was reporting for work.<\/p>\n
The identity of the victim has yet to be released pending authorization from the Attorney General Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts still a continuing investigation, and I need to work with the AG to get the authorization, once I get the okay, I\u2019ll be releasing the name of the victim,\u201d Manalili said.<\/p>\n
Results from the recent autopsy on the victim have also yet to be released. Manalili said he has yet to receive the autopsy report.<\/p>\n
Manalili also revealed that the gun the suspect was holding during the incident was a plastic toy.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Police spokesman Eric F. David said the plastic gun broke during a struggle between the suspect and the victim. The suspect then used a sharp object to stab the 38-year-old victim, before fleeing with $7,000. The object, David said, was not found at the scene.<\/p>\n
The victim died of several stab wounds and loss of blood.<\/p>\n
David said the suspect is considered to be armed and dangerous and anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to contact the DPS Criminal Investigation Bureau at 664-9042 or the NMI Crime Stoppers tips line at 234-7272 or *11 from any Verizon Cellular phone (toll free from Tinian and Rota). Information may also be submitted through its website at www.nmicrimestoppers.com.<\/p>\n
Crime Stoppers pay up to $1,000 cash for information leading to an arrest. All tips remain anonymous and caller ID is not used.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Manalili said evidence from another fatal poker robbery incident that occurred in Tanapag are back from the FBI lab.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at it again and hopefully we\u2019re going to move forward again with the case,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to sit down again and look through the lab reports.\u201d<\/p>\n
DPS commissioner Santiago F. Tudela explained that information relating to homicide cases are not all disclosed to the media because of fears that it may jeopardize the investigations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe homicide is a very sensitive case and sometimes we cannot comment or reveal all the information because we don\u2019t want to jeopardize the investigation. But if we\u2019re done with the investigation and there\u2019s a conviction, that\u2019s the time we can give all the information, but for now, we have to withhold some of the information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigation Bureau is currently working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the Jan. 2 homicide incident at the J&C Poker establishment in China Town, and is optimistic that it would soon make an arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}