Artemio Tare Jr. was finally killed during a publicly-witnessed shootout with members of the Guindulman Police Station who were conducting a supposedly ordinary checkpoint along a national road in Barangay Tabajan shortly after 9 last night that turned out bloody but widely praised by Boholanos who have condemned the rampant proliferation of illegal drugs in Bohol. Two Guindulman police officers were wounded in the face-to-face combat last night but have been declared out of danger by the attending physicians.

Tare, the police assassin who killed a police officer in Tagbilaran City a day before, was trying to duplicate his Friday's exhibition move when he singlehandedly felled four members of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) and yet managed to elude arrest in style as if he was walking in the park. But Tare, unlike his previous Hollywood display of marksmanship which resulted to the shocking death of one good policeman, failed to make a back-to-back feat over the law enforcers here. Tare's obsession of a grandslam win in gunbattle fell short on Saturday night. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds in his body and in his head after the suspect engaged the Guindulman police in gunfight while passengers of Southern Star bus (Ceres) watched in horror.

An ex-convict and drug pusher, Tare, who killed a police officer and critically wounded three other PNP members Friday morning, was on board a Southern Star bus driven by Jeffrey Auguis bus en route to Ubay town. Police believed Tare, who boarded the bus in Loay, was fleeing Bohol using the Ubay-Bato-Leyte exit point. But according to Police Senior Inspector Joemar Pomarejos, Guindulman police chief, the police did not actually know that they had killed a police assassin, who 24 hours earlier had gunned down PO1 Michael June Ejoc and shot three of Ejoc's companions, one of them is still in critical condition. In an interview with the Bohol Sunday Post, Pomarejos said eight personnel of the Guindulman police station (including himself as the team leader) flagged down a Southern Star bus bearing plate number 07310 during a checkpoint at Barangay Tabajan, Guindulman, shortly after 9 p.m. last night.

Tare, who was sitting at the rear seat of the bus, was asked by the police to remove his hat for facial identification, and according to witnesses, the suspect was even seen raising his left hand but his right hand was already holding a loaded gun hidden in his jacket and he fired at two police officers. Without any word, just like the way he killed Ejoc and critically wounded three other police officers, Tare shot PO1 Jeremias Platino and PO1 Joel Bayron. And, yes, Tare did it again. He hit the two police officers who sustained a gunshot wound in Platino's stomach and Bayron's foot. The incident prompted the Guindulman police personnel to open fire, hitting Tare in the body, leg and head. No passenger of the Southern Star bus was injured during the encounter.

Following the gun battle, police recovered from Tare one caliber .45 Gold Cup pistol with serial number 907-01, one caliber .357 pistol loaded with three bullets, one caliber 22 Black Widow loaded with five live bullets, and several ammos and magazines. Also recovered from the body of Tare were packs of shabu and several drug paraphernalia, two pieces of transparent heat sealed plastic containing shabu residue, driver's license ID, school ID, phone SIM card, silver necklace and P470 cash. Pomarejos told the Bohol Sunday Post that it was only upon inspection of the suspect's belongings when the recovered identification cards revealed the name of “Artemio Tare Jr.,” who was subject of a massive manhunt operation. Bohol PNP director Senior Superintendent Dennis Palo Agustin has extolled the bravery of Guindulman policemen who risked their lives in the quest to capture Tare.

Agustin had vowed to hunt down Tare Jr., an alleged drug pusher, who on Friday morning gunned down Police Officer 1 Michael June Ejoc, a member of the Provincial Intelligence Board (PIB). Ejoc, together with three other police officers, was surveying a slum area at Sitio Ubos, Poblacion 2, this city, in response to a tip indicating that a group of drug users were having a pot session. But the police officers were met with a hail of gunfire coming from a house where Tare was staying. Ejoc, a father of two kids, died on the spot after a bullet hit in his head. Another bullet hit the head of PO1 Rinan Tagotongan but he survived the attack and is now recuperating in a hospital here. Tare, an ex-convict who had served his sentenced on illegal drug charges, also shot PO3 Judito Jasmin and PO1 Carlito Gamalo. The two police sustained gunshot wounds in their bodies and are still undergoing treatment.

Witnesses said Tare managed to elude arrest after he singlehandedly shot the four police officers. “Our hot pursuit operation is around the clock. We will not rest until the killer is captured,” said PSupt. Joie Pacito Yape Jr., information officer of the Bohol Police Provincial Office (BPPO), earlier in the day. Three hours before Tare's death, Yape had told media the police in Bohol were confident that the police assassin “can only run but he cannot hide.” In a follow-up operation at the crime scene in Sitio Ubos, Poblacion 2, Tagbilaran City, police recovered several packs of suspected shabu and assorted drug paraphernalia allegedly used by the group of Tare. Agustin has condemned the attack on police anti-drug crusaders, the third in three months. Last May 2, 2014, the police chief of Danao town, SPO1 Noel Romagos, was gunned down by a suspected drug pusher. A month later, the chief of police of Ubay town, Police Chief Inspector George Salcedo Caña, was killed in an ambush perpetrated by a group of alleged drug lords, six of whom were eventually killed in a shootout with the police.

Police Inspector Jojit Mananquil, of PIB-Bohol, in a text message, has called on the Boholano community to extend financial assistance to the victims, whom he said are “heroes in the fight against the rampant proliferation of illegal drugs in Bohol.” Last week, a notorious drug lord based in Ubay town, 120 kilometers from the capital city of Tagbilaran, was killed during a shootout with police forces. The attack on anti-drug crusaders last Friday, however, were not related to last week's death of Romulo Caño, a known drug lord operating in the province's second district towns. Meanwhile, Police Senior Inspector Roland Lavisto, of SWAT/PPSC based in Camp Dagohoy, told the Bohol Sunday Post that Tare indeed sustained a gunshot wound in his leg, not in the stomach as earlier reported, when Tare shot at the four police officers. Lavisto said two of the police officers managed to return fire but they were not sure whether Tare was hit. Lavisto noted that, incidentally, Ejoc was a classmate of Platino. The two trained together to become policemen in 2012.