BIÑAN CITY, Laguna (PNA) – Five persons, three of them students, died when four unidentified gunmen rained bullets on them in Canlalay Village in this city at midnight Thursday.
Laguna Provincial Police Office information officer Senior Inspector Jerry Sanggalang Friday said the five victims believed to be neighborhood friends were in a group gathering around Thursday midnight in Maribel Subdivision in front of the Canlalay Elementary School when four unidentified assailants gunned them down then fled.
Police identified the slain victims who are residents of Maribel Subdivison as Arnel V. Barce 17, student; Ranel V. Barce, 18, student; Darwin M. Villareal 18, student; Rico P. Laserna, 32, service crew; and Mark Robin V. Ignacio 27, jobless.
Police said Arnel, Villareal, Laserna and Ignacio were pronounced dead on arrival by the attending physician in the Biñan Hospital.
Ranel was treated at the Perpetual Help Hospital in this city, but he later expired.
Scene of the Crime Operatives recovered from the crime scene 13 cartridges of cal. 9mm, and two deformed slugs for unknown caliber of firearm.
Police said the motive of the shooting and the identities of the gunmen are yet to be known, but initial information said three of the victims had a history of being neighborhood toughies who harassed and victimized passers-by in the area especially at night.
Investigators are also looking into possibility of drug link and are now pursuing manhunt operations for possible identification and arrest of the four gunmen.