The Manila Police District has identified the suspected gunman and the possible motive behind the daring murder of a regular staff of city Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso early Thursday.
The killer of city hall administrative aide Jonathan Ignacio, 37, may have been an old acquaintance seeking to avenge the shooting of his brother by Ignacio’s brother, police said.
Ignacio himself was not known to have any enemies.
MPD homicide section chief Inspector Armando Macaraeg said that only hours before Ignacio was shot in the head in front of his family at their third-floor home on Prudencia St., Tondo, the gunman’s brother had figured in a shooting incident with Ignacio’s brother.
Details on the reported altercation has yet to be fleshed out by the police.
Police are still checking who was with Ignacio on the night prior to his murder.
Previous reports showed that the gunman barged into Ignacio’s room to kill him only minutes after Ignacio returned home from a night out with friends at around 5:15 a.m.
The suspected gunman is a long-time neighbor and even a friend of Ignacio and his brother on their old home street before Ignacio moved out with his live-in partner, Macaraeg said.
The suspect was no longer at his home when police arrived.
The 16-year-old son of Ignacio, who was in the room when Ignacio was shot, also pointed to the suspect as the gunman, Macaraeg added.
“[The suspect] may have been drunk and surprised,” when he learned about the altercation between his brother and Ignacio’s, Macaraeg said in Filipino.
Macaraeg declined to reveal the suspect’s name pending the issuance of a warrant of arrest.