Love angle eyed in teens’ killing outside Cotabato school

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Police are looking into a “love angle” and teenage gang warfare as possible motives for the killing of two students and the wounding of three others in front of a school by unidentified persons in a car.

“A woman is the reason behind it,” Chief Inspector Marlou Martinez, Cotabato City police spokesperson, said of the shooting late Wednesday afternoon that killed Mark Bandali and Sadam Ampatuan, both 16-years old.

“This is our initial police finding involving teen gang war among high school students,” said Martinez, who declined to identify the woman over whom the rival gang members were supposedly fighting.

He said the victims were waiting for a ride on Sousa Street just outside Rojas National High School shortly before 5 p.m. when unidentified persons in a Toyota Corolla  fired at them. The shooting was witnessed by students and other bystanders but nobody would come forward to testify, police said.

Treated for gunshot wounds in a nearby hospital were Norhana Abdul, Christopher Baroy, and Alamani Barongan.

Martinez said police investigators recovered empty shells from a 9-mm pistol.

Councilor Wilfrido Bueno, minority leader on the city’s legislative council, said he expected the shooting would make the council back calls for the installation of closed-circuit television cameras in strategic places to deter crime.

Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. said the city government was proposing to require business establishments with over a million-peso investments to install their own CCTV cameras by December.

Police said CCTV cameras would help solve crimes specially in cases were witnesses are reluctant to come forward.