Woman shot dead in QC after attending church

MANILA, Philippines – A 63-year-old woman was gunned down Sunday morning by one of two motorcycle-riding men soon after she and her daughter left a church in Quezon City.

Estrella Quides of Kaimito Street, Area B in Payatas village died on spot from bullet wounds to the head and the right side of the body, police said.

According to the victim’s daughter, Percella, 21, she and her mother were walking when she heard bursts of gunfire from behind only to find out that the shots had been directed at her mother.

The gunman fled on a black motorcycle driven by an accomplice.

Senior Police Officer 1 Eric Lazo of the Quezon City Police District Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU) said that the killing took place around 8:30 a.m. at the corner of San Juan Bautista and Sto Niño de Payatas Streets in Payatas A village, several meters from the Mother of the Divine Providence Parish on San Juan Evangelista Street.

According to Lazo, Estrella and Percella had just left the church after hearing Mass and were walking home when the gunman trailed them.

He said that mother and daughter did not realize that they were being followed until the shots rang out and the elderly woman fell to the ground bleeding from gunshot wounds.

Percella told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that before she and her mother entered the church, she had observed two men standing across the main door of the church.

“I noticed that they (two men) were looking at us intently as we entered the parish but we decided to ignore them,” she said.

After the Mass, the victim and her daughter went out of the church, but they did not see the two men. They were walking home side by side, the daughter said, when she suddenly heard successive gunfire. “I just heard the shots from behind us and was shocked to see my mother had been shot,” Percella told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Lazo said that scene of the crime office (SOCO) personnel recovered two empty shells from a .45 pistol at the site of the shooting.

The case investigator theorized that the killing could have something to do with a land dispute involving the victim. But he added that other angles are also being investigated.