4 people killed, 2 hurt in Quezon wake shooting

LUCENA CITY – Four people who were attending a wake were shot and killed by a lone gunman in Infanta town in Quezon province Wednesday night, police said.

Colonel Osmundo de Guzman, Quezon police director, in a report, said the still unidentified gunman who was armed with caliber .45 pistol fired at the victims who were attending the wake in their neighborhood in Purok (sub-village) Irrigation in Barangay (village) Ilog around 8:45 p.m.

Police said victims Herman Cuento, 70; Leon Cuento, 73; Manuel Cuerdo, 41 and Michael Cuento, 50 sustained gunshot wounds and died while being rushed to the Claro M. Recto Memorial District Hospital.

Maximo Cuento, 65, and Napoleon Miras, 68, a barangay captain in another village, were wounded in the shooting. They are being treated at the said hospital, police said.

The gunman fled after the shooting aboard a motorcycle being driven by an accomplice.

In a phone interview, De Guzman said the gunman barged into the wake and immediately shot Michael.

“The gunman approached the wounded Michael and finished him off with more shots. He was the real target,” De Guzman said.

Police said the victims were shot after the gunman successively opened fire.

De Guzman revealed that Michael survived an in 2016. “The suspect is still in jail,” De Guzman said.

Infanta Mayor Grace America said Michael was the official driver of the mayor’s office and also a quarry permit holder in the area.

According to America, Michael had expressed apprehension in the present election season.

“The failed ambush happened in 2016 election. But he was unharmed. With election season again, I just advise him to always take extra precaution,” the mayor said in a phone interview.

But she could not determine if the attempt to Michael’s life back then was related to politics.

Major Hobert Sarmiento, Infanta police officer-in-charge, said investigators are reinvestigating the failed ambush against Michael for a possible lead behind his murder.

“It could be possible that his killing was related in the past ambush. It’s another angle for the investigators,” he said in a separate phone interview.

Sarmiento said probers are also looking into Michael’s line of business as quarry operator and manager of a Small Town Lottery (STL) operation in Infanta for possible clues to his murder. /muf