Cavite prosecutor shot dead in front of house

Updated @ 1:22 a.m., Jan. 1, 2022

An assistant city prosecutor of Trece Martires City in Cavite province was shot and killed in front of his house on New Year’s Eve.

At 7:38 a.m. on Friday, Edilbert Mendoza was out in his yard exercising at Elysian Field Subdivision, Barangay Cabuco, in Trece Martires when he was shot in the back of the head by a lone gunman.

The police said the 48-year-old Mendoza died on the spot.

A closed-circuit television camera footage released by the police showed him jumping rope when a man in a black shirt, denim jeans, and a white hat covering his face ran toward the lawyer and shot him from behind. The assailant then fled on foot.

First angle

Police Staff Sergeant Rene Bibon, the case investigator, said “the first angle [we’re looking into] is that this is related to his job because he is handling cases.”

“The second angle is that he might have had a fight with someone. We’ll try to figure that one out when we talk to the family,” Bibon told the Inquirer on the phone.

The Department of Justice ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to look into Mendoza’s killing and help capture the perpetrator.

An order issued by Justice Undersecretary Adrian Ferdinand Sugay also directed the NBI to submit periodic reports on its findings in the next 30 days.

In a Viber message, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the incident “clearly demonstrates the risk to life that our prosecutors face in the performance of their duties.”

“I have directed the NBI to immediately join in the manhunt and apprehension of the perpetrators of this treacherous crime,” Guevarra said.

—WITH A REPORT FROM MARLON RAMOS

lzb