Gunman shoots, wounds driver, conductor, child in van

PIKIT, NORTH COTABATO –Three persons, including a seven-year-old child, were wounded when a male passenger in the van they were riding in opened fire inside the van, targeting two of the wounded victims. Lt. Col. Bernard Tayong, speaking for the North Cotabato police, said wounded in the indiscriminate firing were the van driver, Mohammad Sanday, his conductor Dadai Mastura Oto and a seven-year-old passenger. The gunman, still unidentified, was aiming for Sanday and Oto, said Tayong. The child was hit by stray bullets. The van, bound for Kidapawan City from Cotabato City, had picked up the gunman at a stopover in Pigcawayan town. When the van was in Pikit town, the gunman demanded the van pull over as he was getting off. But as he stepped out of the van, the gunman started firing his handgun at the driver and conductor, hitting the child, too. Despite his wounds, Sanday managed to drive the vehicle about a kilometer away to a hospital in Pikit. He and the two other shooting victims, including the child, are being treated at the hospital. A manhunt is ongoing for the still unidentified gunman.