Judge shot dead in Bulacan

CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan, Philippines — The judge who convicted one of the leaders of the Dominguez car theft group in 2012 was killed in an ambush Wednesday afternoon as he drove towards Metro Manila after a day in court here, police said.

Two men shot and killed Judge Wilfredo Nieves of the Bulacan Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 84 while he waited for his turn at an intersection near the Malolos Industrial Park along MacArthur Highway in Barangay (village) Tikay at 4:45 p.m., said Supt. Erwin Tadeo, Malolos police chief.

Witnesses said the gunmen alighted from a vehicle that was apparently tailing Nieves’ Toyota Fortuner, flanked the judge’s vehicle and fired.

The gunmen, who did not conceal their faces, quickly returned to their vehicle and drove off.

Police and paramedics, who arrived 20 minutes later, declared Nieves dead of bullet wounds in the forehead, neck and body.

Police are trying to secure footage from closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in the area for an image of the killers.

Tadeo said investigators have not established a motive for the attack.

In April 2012, Nieves convicted Raymond Dominguez, one of the suspected leaders of a car theft gang operating in Metro Manila and Central Luzon, and sentenced him to up to 30 years in prison.  SFM