Driver killed in QC attack targeting boss

Hitmen on motorbikes, one of them in a police uniform, staged an attack apparently targeting a businessman but ended up killing his family driver Thursday night in Quezon City.

Basco Ocampo, 42, of Meycauayan, Bulacan province, took a fatal shot to the chest while his boss Angelito dela Pena and another passenger survived unscathed in a van. Police said the crime involved a group of six men.

Insp. Elmer Monsalve, homicide section chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said Dela Pena recognized one of the men on the bikes and that he believed this man wanted him killed because of a personal grudge.

The attack happened around 7:20 p.m. at the corner of Kanlaon and Dapitan streets in Barangay Sta. Teresita. Ocampo was then driving a black Hyundai Starex van (TKI 732) with Dela Pena and companion Renato Ceylon onboard en route to Dela Pena’s residence in Marilao, Bulacan.

Six men on four bikes suddenly appeared next to the van, motioning to Ocampo for him to stop. When the driver pulled over, the man in police uniform ordered Ocampo and his passengers to get off the van since it was supposedly a “hot” (or stolen) vehicle.

But Dela Pena recognized one of the men and hurriedly told Ocampo to drive off. The assailants started firing at the van as it moved.

Hit in the chest, Ocampo lost control of the vehicle, which ended up crossing over to the opposite lane, hitting an Isuzu Crosswind.

The assailants fled as the collision caught the attention of bystanders.

Barangay watchmen brought Ocampo to Sta. Teresita Hospital, where was declared dead on arrival.