Willie Nepomuceno. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Faced with the prospect of death, Angello Abistado, 19, didn’t take his eyes off the man who was pointing a gun at him, believing that if he somehow survived, his statement would be crucial in any investigation.
“I thought I was going to die, but I didn’t take my eyes off him. I wanted to see him,” Abistado, one of four boys attacked in Marikina City early Thursday, said in an interview.
After the attack by at least four men at 2:50 a.m. in Barangay (village) Marikina Heights, actor Willie Nepomuceno’s grandson, Sean, 16, had to be rushed to the hospital after he sustained three gunshot wounds in the body.
Franc Rayven Jocson, 17, was treated for a gunshot wound in the left thigh but was subsequently released.
Abistado and Sherwin Jerome Malit, 19, were unhurt.
According to Abistado, the group had just finished playing games at the IT Log computer shop at the corner of Bayanbayanan Ave. and Bugallon St. when Nepomuceno invited them to a meal at the nearby Angels Hamburger.
He said the group had just eaten their first round of burgers and were waiting for the second one when they heard a loud shot, which prompted them to look behind them.
According to Malit, he heard the Angel Hamburger vendor say, “Don’t shoot. They’re not them.”
“And then we saw four men who were holding guns. They fired at us, three to four times,” Malit said.
Abistado said one of the gunmen approached them and asked “Are you them? Are you them? (Kayo ba yun? Kayo ba yun?)”
“I don’t know what you’re saying,” Abistado recalled telling the man.
At this point, he said the same man cocked his gun and, while pointing the weapon at him (Abistado), pulled the trigger.
“But nothing came out so he cocked the gun again,” Abistado said, adding the same man even hit him with the gun on the elbow.
“And then someone said ‘Run!'” Abistado added, saying it might have been one of the tricycle drivers who were also in the area who said the word.
Abistado narrated how he started running without any specific direction.
“I heard one of the gunmen behind me say ‘P**** i**, gago ka pala e!’,” after which he said he heard footsteps behind him.
He said he then heard “many gunshots” being fired.
“I didn’t know how many shots were fired anymore or how long I was running. I was just running for my life,” he said.
At one point, he said he saw Nepomuceno in front of him, panting and his hands on his thighs, as if he were resting.
“I pulled him out of there, into a dark spot, told him to run, but he said, ‘Wait Gelo, I can’t anymore,'” Abistado said.
He said it was then when he saw blood oozing out of Nepomuceno’s stomach.
At that point, he said he told Nepomuceno to hide underneath a jeepney, and wait until the coast was clear.
He changed his mind, however, after seeing a tricycle.
“I told the driver to just take me and (Nepomuceno) to a hospital,” Abistado said.
According to Malit, he and Jocson stayed behind when someone shouted, ‘Run!’
He said he saw two of the gunmen run after Nepomuceno and Abistado.
Another man stayed with them, pointing a gun at them, while the other boarded a white Ford Fiesta, he said.
“I pulled (Jocson) but one of the gunmen pointed a gun at us and asked, ‘Do you want to die?'”
He said he and Jocson pleaded for their lives.
The armed man who was with them, he said, calmed himself, and started kicking them instead.
He said he wasn’t able to see the man who was attacking them, as he never looked him in the eye for fear he would get even more furious.
All four armed men just fled after the attack, Abistado said.
Doctors at the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center did not allow interviews with Nepomuceno, as of press time, but Abistado said he received a text from the 16-year-old’s father saying his friend was already in the recovery room after surgery.
Senior Supt. Reynaldo Jagmis, the city’s chief of police, earlier said Nepomuceno had been hit in the chest during the attack.
Jagmis said it was unclear whether Nepomuceno’s group was the real target of the suspects or what their motive was for the shooting as of yet.
He added, however, that there were reports that a brawl had occurred minutes before Nepomuceno’s group arrived at the burger joint.
When asked whether it was possibly a case of mistaken identity, however, Jagmis stood his ground and said: “The case is still under investigation … It’s too early to establish the motive,” he said.
He said the police had been able to verify through Land Transportation records the registered owner of the vehicle used by the assailants as witnesses had been able to jot down the plate number.
He refused to say the name of the owner, however, or the plate number, saying this might jeopardize the ongoing police operation.
Asked whether the attackers came from a family with means considering the use of an expensive vehicle, he said: “You’re the one who said that.”
Police sources told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, however, that investigators were following up on a lead in Makati, in a house “with a high gate.”
Jagmis said the police would also conduct a ballistics exam on the empty shells recovered from the scene.
Police managed to recover five empty shells and one live ammo of a .45 cal. pistol, and two empty shells and live ammo of a .40 cal. pistol.
“If the pistols are not registered, that’s when we have a problem,” he said.
He said the police were also “in the process” of coming up with sketches of the men based on the victims’ descriptions.
According to Abistado, the man who pointed the gun at him was partly bald and was probably in his thirties.
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