Camarines Sur mayor dies in hospital after shooting

NAGA CITY, Philippines—The mayor of a town in Camarines Sur who was shot in the head by a lone gunman on Saturday died at 1:20 a.m. Sunday, his attending doctor at the hospital said.

Dr. Sheyne Calleja, of the Mother Seton Hospital, said Lupi Mayor Raul Matamorosa, 45, did not survive the operation that lasted almost eight hours.

Calleja said doctors were trying to save Matamorosa’s life after a bullet fired from behind was lodged inside his head.

Matamorosa had just brought in his plasma television for repair at a service center at the Diversion Road in this city when he was shot at close range at the back of his head by an unidentified gunman, the city police investigator, Senior Police Officer 1 Julio Luis Caparroso, said.

Caparroso said Matamorosa was about to leave the service center around 3:45 p.m. and was opening his car’s door when the gunman approached the mayor from behind and shot him on the head.

He said an empty shell of a .45-cal. pistol was recovered from the crime scene, just few meters from the hospital where Matamorosa died.

Matamorosa, a Liberal Party member, was not running for any position in the 2013 elections but has endorsed his brother Roberto to run for mayor in Lupi town.

Caparroso said police investigators were still determining the motive of the shooting and did not discount the possibility that the killing was election-related.