ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur — Four persons, including a 5-year-old girl, were gunned down along a road in a village here on Thursday evening (June 17).
According to Lieutenant Shelamae Chang, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 9 (PRO9), the four were aboard a motorcycle traveling along the bypass road in Tugbungan village when four suspects on board two motorcycles appeared and sprayed them with bullets at around 6:40 p.m.
After the shooting, the suspects fled towards the direction of Putik village, according to Maj. Salvador Galvez, chief of the Tetuan police station, citing the initial investigation.
Investigators found 16 empty shells of a 9mm pistol and six empty shells of an M16 rifle at the scene.
Chang identified the victims as Alih Ibno, 35, his wife Rana Raddaie, 28, his sister-in-law Fatima, 36, and daughter Aliyanna.
They were natives of Upper Laus in Talipao, Sulu, and relocated to Villa Teresa in Mampang village here in 2016.
Ibno works as a security guard here, his wife Rana works as a clerk in Talipao, while Fatima used to be village chief of Upper Laus.
Galvez said the family went to visit their newly acquired lot in Tugbungan village.
Galvez added that they are looking at the possibility of the attack stemming from a dispute over other claimants to the lot they recently acquired.
Another angle is that the attack could be directed at Fatima who was a village politician.