Hunt on for ‘students’ who mauled OFW to death

The Quezon City police on Tuesday released a photo—along with a cartographic sketch—of Fritz Mohammed, the primary suspect in the fatal of mauling of Abigail Gino Basas. The photo showed Mohammed drinking with friends who also allegedly took part in the attack on Basas at a bar’s parking lot in the early morning of March 4 —PHOTOS COURTESY OF QCPD

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) has launched a manhunt for the 10 suspects in the fatal mauling of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) early Saturday morning.

The QCPD named four of them based on the accounts of witnesses who frequented Perfect Spot Bar and Billiards, where the suspects attacked 28-year-old Abigail Gino Basas at the parking lot on Scout Dr. Lazcano Street in Barangay Sacred Heart.

The four were identified as Frits Mohammed, the primary suspect; Cyril Rada, Earl Grande and a certain Jammel.

Investigators have received a tip that the suspects, five of them women (not 10 men, as earlier reported), are college students from either National University or the University of the East in Manila. The QCPD has contacted both schools to seek their cooperation.

Bouncers and waiters at the bar told the police that the group was known for causing trouble at the establishment.

A cartographic sketch of Mohammed was released on Tuesday based on the description given by Lloyd Melvin Lisondra, one of Basas’ two companions. Lisondra, along with Marco de Leon, also suffered injuries.

“We received information that some of them had already changed their appearance by cutting their hair or shaving their head,” said Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, QCPD director, who urged the group to surrender.

Footage from closed-circuit television cameras in the establishment showed that Basas was in the billiards area around 2:44 a.m. Saturday when he bumped into Mohammed, who sported shoulder-length hair and stood at 5’6” to 5’7”.

As a smiling Basas walked away, Mohammed, who appeared drunk and irked, was seen following him. The suspect later called for his companions, who followed him to the parking lot where they ganged up on Basas, Lisondra and De Leon.

Basas, a cruise ship photographer then on vacation, was hit several times until a punch to the chin knocked him down. According to De Leon, the suspects kept kicking his fallen friend in the back and stomach.

The autopsy later showed that Basas succumbed to hematoma or clotted blood forming in a tissue due to a broken blood vessel.