BY WALDO D. COVAS QUEVEDO

A 23-year-old was stabbed to death at daybreak Monday, and Caguas Regional Police Homicide agents are looking for his father-in-law as the primary suspect in the killing.

On Sunday evening, Anthony Colón Cruz, of the Jardines de Juncos urbanization, had given shelter to his wife’s mother after she had fought with her husband.

Apparently, the woman’s husband arrived at Colón Cruz’s house at 6:20 a.m. and when the latter intervened in another argument he was stabbed to death, police said.

The suspect in the case fled in a white 2005 Toyota Corolla which was located later in the Los Charcot sector with blood stains on its interior.

With Colón Cruz’s killing there have been 797 homicides so far this year, 82 more than in the same period last year.

Seventeen homicides were reported this weekend, including that of Jorge Steven López Mercado, a 19-year-old resident of Caguas, whose body was found decapitated, charred and with his extremities cut off at 3:45 p.m. Friday near the old Guavate ward jail.

The FBI said that it was monitoring the Police Department investigation so that the federal agency can intervene if it is determined the murder was a hate crime due to López Mercado’s sexual orientation.

Lt. Col. Héctor Agosto Rodríguez, chief of the Guayama Regional Police, said he would not remove homicide agent Ángel Rodríguez Colón from the case as the result of comments he made about the victim being gay.

Another homicide was reported at 7:45 p.m. Sunday in the Juan Martín ward of Luquillo.

The victim was identified as Rafael Ortiz Flores, 26, who was found dead in a bathroom of his home. He had been shot several times.

Yet another killing was reported at 10:44 p.m. in the Sabana Seca ward in Toa Baja, when Javier Ortiz Santos, 29, was shot four times while in front of his house. He was rushed to the Río Piedras Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

A bicycle rider was killed and another was in critical condition after separate crashes in Salinas and Isabela on Sunday night.

The victim in the Salinas accident was identified as Pablo Pacheco Padilla, 40, a resident of the Coco Nuevo ward of the municipality.

According to the preliminary investigation, Pacheco Padilla was riding on state road PR-1 when a vehicle hit his bicycle at 10:20 p.m. and the driver fled the scene.

Another bicyclist, identified as Reynaldo Bonilla Ortiz, 42, of the Jobos ward in Isabela, lost control of his bike and fell on the pavement on Palmera Street.

A neighbor identified as Jeanette González Román was assisting him when he was dragged 65 feet by a burgundy 2005 Toyota Corolla driven by Xiomara Acevedo Colón, 22, an area resident.

Bonilla Ortiz was rushed to the Buen Samaritano Hospital, from where he was referred to the Río Piedras Medical Center in serious condition.

Assistant district attorney Joseph Esparra ordered Aguadilla Traffic patrolman Nelson Hernández to submit both men to alcohol detection tests.

Meanwhile, judge Lorraine Biaggi Trigo set a man charged with killing a dog free on $40,000 bail.

The man was identified as William Feliciano Reyes, 26, of the Los Llanos ward in Coamo, who is charged with killing a dog named “Negrito” Nov. 10.

Feliciano Reyes will face a preliminary hearing Dec. 1 to determine probable cause for trial.

Bayamón Regional Police, meanwhile, are investigating the theft of 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel from an Aqueduct and Sewer Authority facility in Guaynabo on Sunday night after burglars broke the padlock on the main gate of the pump station.

Meanwhile, five armed men wearing masks robbed $10,000 cash from the slot machines and the cash register of the El Puche tavern in the Barrio Obrero sector of Santurce on Sunday afternoon.

Three masked men, one of them armed, stole an undetermined amount of cash on Monday from the Texaco gas station on state road PR-2 in the Sabana Hoyos ward in Arecibo at 12:50 a.m., when they overpowered an employee and forced open an automated teller machine.