3 hurt in Labangon shooting

A WOMAN was critically wounded while two others were injured in a shooting incident in  barangay Labangon, Cebu City, at dawn yesterday.

Alma Zaravarria was shot in the head.

A bullet grazed the right thigh of Ian Estinoso while a 17-year-old boy was wounded in the right thigh.

The boy was one of the people who rushed Zaravarria to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC). It was only at the hospital that he noticed that he was also wounded.

Hospital  staff saw blood oozing from his thigh.

Police said Zaravarria was about to eat noodles in a snack house along Katipunan Street around 1 a.m. when three men on a motorcycle arrived and suddenly opened fire.

A witness told police that he and his friends scampered after they saw the three  men draw guns.

The witness said the assailants did not cover their faces and were unfamiliar faces in the barangay.

The witness said he was  unable to note  the plate number of the motorcycle  before he ran for safety.

SPO3 Rogelio Cañete of the Punta Princessa police said that before the shooting, bystanders in the area reprimanded a man and a woman on a motorcycle for creating a lot of noise.

Cañete said investigators are also looking into the possibility that the shooting was gang-related.

Police recovered five empty shells and two slugs of a .45 pistol at the crime scene./CORRESPONDENTS CARINE M. ASUTILLA AND CHITO O. ARAGON