What If You're Face To Face With Your Murderer?

People take pictures all the time, especially during celebrations.

But a father who was talking his family’s photo captured a most unexpected image – his killer pointing a gun at him.

A split second, then the fatal shot.

Reynaldo Dagsa, 38, a village councilman in Caloocan, was assassinated at the height of the New Year revelry in front of his wife, daughter and mother-in-law. The killer, Arnel Buenaflor, a car thief he had sent to jail, is in hiding, but the two look-outs, Michael Gonzales and Rommel Oliva, also caught on film, are now both detained by the police.

Dagsa, trained by the Philippine Army, could have shot Buenaflor if he drew his own gun, but that would put his family in the line of fire.

“He must have thought the assassin would hurt his family or his relative, or anybody in the area, so he did not do anything that would compromise our safety,” his wife Arlene told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.  “He took the bullet instead.”

In the first hour of 2011, at 12:30 a.m., Dagsa was declared dead at the Martinez Hospital.

“I will miss my Papa,” cries his 10-year old daughter Reynalyn. “Who will take us and fetch us from school? Who will sing to me Lead Me Lord? That’s my father’s favorite.”