Lawyer shot dead in QC

MANILA, Philippines—A 50-year-old lawyer was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding men at a gasoline station in Quezon City late Tuesday night, authorities said.

Chief Inspector Ariel Capocao, deputy head of the Quezon City Police District Criminal Investigation Unit, said Joel Descalar, a resident of Saint Ignatius Village, had just come from a meeting at the EDSA Shangri-La hotel in Mandaluyong City when he was shot a close range at around 10:50 p.m.

Capocao said the assailants might have tailed Descalar from the hotel and pounced on him when he stopped for fuel.

Capocao said Descalar was on board his Nissan Frontier pickup getting gas at the Shell station along Katipunan avenue and 4th Street, Barangay (village) St. Ignatius when the gunmen showed up on a motorcycle with license plate PI5653.

“He rolled down his window to tell the gas boy for a refuel when the suspects appeared and stopped beside the victim and shot him several times at close range,” Capocao said.

Descalar sustained three gunshot wounds in the face and two in the neck. He died on the spot.

Capocao said the killers were professionals based on how the shooting was carried out.

Senior Police Officer 2 Neil Garnace said that before the killing, Descalar called his family to say he had just come from a meeting at the hotel and was on his way home.

Garnace said Descalar’s family could not say if he had received any threat but indicated the killing might be connected to his job as a lawyer.

Garnace said they have coordinated with the Land Transportation Office to trace the ownership of the motorcycle used by the killers.

He also said they have requested for the copy of the footage of the several closed-circuit television cameras installed in the various areas of the station.

Witnesses told police that the assailants were wearing helmets but raised their shields when they fired at the lawyer. “Their faces were seen and recognizable because the helmet cover was up,” Garnace said.