LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – A 38-year old vegetable rider died after he was repeatedly shot by two still unidentified gun-wielding suspects right in front of his rented residence at Tabangaoen, Balili, here, Thursday morning.
Maj. Roldan Cabatan, chief of the La Trinidad Municipal Police Station, identified the fatality as Jonathan Velasco Santiago, 38, married, vegetable disposer at the La Trinidad trading post, native of Paykek, Kapangan, Benguet but presently residing at Tabangaoen, Balili, La Trinidad, Benguet.
Initial police investigation showed that the victim boarded a taxi from the vegetable trading post area and alighted in front of his rented residence when the two suspects, who waited for him in the crime scene, allegedly peppered him with bullets from their firearms that caused him to be sprawled bloodied on the ground.
Witnesses informed probers that the suspects immediately fled on foot towards Upper Tabangaoen and used stairway to flee from the crime scene.
Responding police operatives and elements of the Scene of the Crime Operation (SOCO) team recovered two spent shells of a calibre .45 pistol and 13 spent shells of a calibre .9mm that were used by the still unidentified suspects in the perpetration of the murder incident that caught the people by surprise.
Probers are still conducting an in-depth investigation on the murder incident to possibly identify the suspects and the motive behind the brutal murder incident that transpired in broad daylight right in front of witnesses who were shocked on the series of events that transpired and led to the untimely demise of the vegetable trader.
By Dexter A. See