2 killed, 7 hurt in Bacolod shooting attacks

SHOOTING (CDN FILE PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)

BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental — Two persons were killed while seven others were wounded early Tuesday in two separate shootings in a span of one hour perpetrated by hitmen on board a motorcycle.

Edwin Magbanua, Edwin Nabor and John Sebrenio, alighted from a motorcycle to buy cigarettes about 12:40 a.m. in Barangay 28, here, when they were shot by a gunman, who was also riding on another motorcycle.

Sebrenio was killed on the spot, while Magbanua died upon reaching the government hospital.

Nabor and a bystander identified as Allan Torrecarion were injured in the shooting.

Chief Insp. Jovil Sedel, police station 6 commander of the Bacolod police, said they recovered five empty shells and a deformed slug of a .45-pistol at the crime scene.

The two gunmen were reported to have been wearing bonnets.

Several minutes later, two men riding a motorcycle opened fire at a group of persons playing a card game at Purok Sigay in Barangay 2, a drug-affected area here, said the police.

Injured were Franklin Dadivas, Alfred Mendoza, Harold Yang, Job Sincua and Noel Diaz.

Mendoza and Diaz were reported to have surrendered during Oplan Tokhang, a police campaign that appealed to drug pushers and users to stop their illegal activities and change their ways.

Before the shooting at Purok Sigay, a client reportedly bought shabu in the area that turned out to be mere tawas or alum.

Police investigators are looking into the possibility that the two gun attacks were connected since these were perpetrated by two men wearing bonnets and using .45-pistols.  SFM/rga