MANILA, Philippines—The Quezon City police are hunting down a man who, after entering a beauty salon for a pedicure, ran amuck and shot dead a hairstylist and a taxi driver in Novaliches on Wednesday.
The still unidentified suspect was having his toenails done around 11 a.m. at Salon Deluxe on Quirino Highway in Sacred Heart Village, Barangay Pasong Putik, when he suddenly pulled a gun and shot Joquerom Gasper Brioso, 31, a former employee of the shop who just came for a visit.
The man went murderous after talking angrily to someone on his cell phone, a witness told the Inquirer.
About 45 minutes later, with the suspect already gone from the salon, the Quezon City Police District was alerted to another shooting incident on Quirino Highway, this time in neighboring Barangay Greater Lagro.
The second victim was identified as Norberto Espiritu, 40, who was shot twice inside his taxi cab.
Based on eyewitness accounts, Espiritu was shot by the same man who killed Brioso, said Insp. Elmer Monsalve, homicide section chief of the QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU).
After leaving the salon, the shooter took a short ride on a bus and later moved to a jeepney, Monsalve said. But when the jeepney figured in a near-collision with Espiritu’s taxi, the suspect got off and tried to force the cab driver to let him in.
When the taxi driver refused, the suspect shot him twice through the window, hitting him in the neck and head, Monsalve said. The suspect was last seen fleeing on foot.
Witnesses described the suspect as a middle-aged man in a green shirt, with blond highlights on his close-cropped hair.
In an interview, a witness who was in the salon recalled that the suspect, before he pulled a gun, was talking to someone on the phone about a child who had just been hospitalized.