2 killed in separate shootings in Quezon City

MANILA, Philippines – Motorcycle-riding killers were busy in Quezon City Monday night, gunning down a taxi driver as he was about to buy cigarettes and another man who was chatting with his live-in partner in their hovel under a flyover, in separate incidents barely 30 minutes apart of each other in neighboring communities, police said Tuesday.

A pedestrian was wounded in the foot by a stray bullet in the first shooting, which occurred around 10 p.m. Monday at the corner of Luzon Avenue and Atis Street in Barangay (village) Culiat.

Carlo Toldanes, 28, died immediately from several gunshot wounds, investigator Police Officer 2 Rhic Pittong said. He said a 19-year-old woman who was walking nearby with a companion was hit in the foot by a stray bullet and was taken to the East Avenue Medical Center for treatment.

Pittong said witnesses saw four men on two motorcycles chasing Toldanes, a resident of Luzon Avenue, moments before the shooting.

The victim had just stepped out of his house to buy some cigarettes at a neighborhood store when the assailants came zooming on their motorcycles. The four men stopped by the victim, after which one of the gunmen alighted and pointed a gun at Toldanes.

The taxi driver quickly ran away but the men chased him and, having cornered him, shot him several times, Pittong said.

Thirty minutes earlier, two men on a motorcycle shot dead a 27-year-old man known only as “Abdul” as he chatted with his lover in their makeshift home under the Luzon Avenue flyover in Old Balara not very far from Culiat.

As in the first shooting, the assailants were believed armed with .45-caliber pistols but police could not say yet if the killers belonged to the same group.

Pittong said the victim was chatting with his live-in partner in their hovel when one of the men on the motorcycle walked up to the couple and shot the victim, who managed to run away a few meters despite his injury. The assailant however chased him and fired more shots. He then ran towards the motorcycle and he and his accomplice sped away.

Police recovered six  .45-caliber  shells and two slugs from the crime scene.