GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 April) – Two people were killed while two others, including an eight-year-old girl were wounded, in a gun attack in a remote village in Koronadal City on Thursday night.
Lt. Col. Rey Egos, acting chief of the Koronadal City police station, said Friday unidentified gunmen came to a community in Sitio Cogonal of Barangay Topland past 8 p.m. and shot at least four people for still unknown reasons.
He said two of the victims identified as Lucio Simpal, 48, and son-in-law Jeffrey Hernandez, 32, were killed due to multiple gunshot wounds.
Two other relatives of the victims — Jeffrey Dalig Talino, 18, and Iceen Pasamante, 8 — were wounded in the attack.
The official said responding policemen recovered at the scene at least 10 fired cartridges from a suspected caliber .45 handgun.
Hernandez’s wife Cielo Mae said she was watching television with her children inside their house when she heard two men calling out and looking for somebody.
She said her husband, who was also watching television at a nearby house, came out and approached the suspects but they suddenly held him.
“They asked him to call my father (Lucio) and my husband obliged. But I can sense through his voice that he was nervous,” she said in an interview over dxMC Bombo Radyo.
Cielo said her father then came out from another nearby house but was suddenly shot several times by the two gunmen.
“They then shot my husband. One of my cousins (Talino) saw what happened and tried to run away but was also shot,” she said in between sobs.
She said Talino is currently in critical condition after sustaining gunshot wounds on the head and back.
The suspects, who left the scene aboard a motorcycle driven by another suspect, also fired at Pasamante, who was hit on the leg, she said.
“It was so sudden. We did not see it coming,” said Cielo, noting that the victims had no known enemies and were not involved in any illegal activity.
Egos said they have launched a deeper investigation into the incident and are trying to establish the identities of the suspects.
He added that they were also determining whether the victims received death threats prior to the attack. (MindaNews)