Probers clueless on Tondo motorcycle-riding gunmen

Manila homicide investigators still don’t have a lead on the identities of four motorcycle-riding men who figured Friday noon in a running gun battle through a busy thoroughfare in  Tondo that resulted in the death of a 67-year-old tricycle passenger.

Operatives of the Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section also don’t have a clue why the four men aboard three motorcycles, two of them riding tandem in one of the bikes, were chasing and shooting at each other along Juan Luna Avenue near Pagasa Street in Gagalangin.

Alfredo Santos of Dayao Street in Balut, Tondo, who was caught in the crossfire, was declared dead on arrival at the Martinez Memorial Hospital in Maypajo, Caloocan City.

Police investigator Jupiter Tajonera said Santos was aboard a tricycle driven by 28-year-old William Garcia when he was killed.

He said Garcia had told police he noticed three motorcycles engaged in a chase and headed towards  Divisoria.

The witness claimed to have seen the rider of the  pursuing motorcycle firing two warning shots in the air, apparently to get the riders of two other bikes to stop.

Tajonera said  when the riders of the two motorcycles being chased fired back at their pursuer, one of the bullets hit Santos, Garcia’s passenger.

The motorcycles wound their way through the heavy traffic, continuing their gun battle.

The tricycle driver said he immediately brought his wounded passenger to the nearest hospital to try to save him but the effort proved futile.  The body was brought to the Lorenzo funeral homes for autopsy and safekeeping.