A bus passenger indiscriminately fired his gun for no apparent reason killing a fellow passenger and hurting three others at around 11:45 a.m. yesterday in barangay Balud, San Fernando, south of Cebu.
Ariel Gomez, 24, of sitio Magtalisay, barangay Balud died after sustaining a gunshot wound in his head.
Gomez’s close friend, Jomar Secretaria, 27, who was with him, as well as two other passengers, Florentino Coronado, 39, of Sangat, San Fernando and Rose Mary Navares, 43, of Bolinawan, Carcar were injured.
Robert Fiel, bus conductor of the Yeowman FM Liner said that the gunman boarded at sitio Acacia of the same barangay.
Fiel said the gunman forcibly seated himself in between Gomez and Secretaria.
When they reached barangay Balud, the gunman asked the driver to stop and started shooting.
Secretaria, Coronado and Navares are now confined at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.
Police Chief Sara Jane Recla said that based on the initial investigation, a personal grudge was the motive of the attack and have ruled out that it was election related.
The gunman fled towards Carcar City on a motorcycle that he commandeered.
Meanwhile, a 31-year-old woman was shot dead past 1 a.m. yesterday inside an internet café in barangay Pajo, Lapu-Lapu City.
The victim, identified as Shara Samama succumbed to several gunshot wounds in different parts of her body.
PO2 Winston Ybanez of Poblacion Police Station said that according to the 17-year-old internet café attendant, just a few minutes after Samama entered the internet café, an unidentified man wearing a black jacket and a full-faced helmet arrived and shot the victim.
He immediately fled after the shooting on board a motorcycle waiting outside the internet shop.
It was learned that last week, Samama reported to police that a certain “Nazel” threatened to kill her on suspicion that she is a police asset passing on information on illegal drug activities. /CORRESPONDENTS MICHELLE JOY L. PADAYHAG, NORMAN V. MENDOZA AND FE MARIE D. DUMABOC