COTABATO CITY – Unidentified gunmen shot dead a bemedalled police investigator while he was walking near his home in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao around 9 p.m. Thursday, the police said Friday.

Inspector Datu Abdul Faris Talusan sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the body and did not reach the Cotabato Emergency Hospital, according to Superintendent Danilo Bacas, spokesman of the police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Bacas said witnesses told investigators that Talusan, also the acting police chief of Sultan Kudarat town, tried to fire back.

Bacas said they were looking at several angles but did not give specifics.