Victims reach 150: Vigilantes tagged in death of couple

Two men shot dead "vigilante style" a couple, who were believed to be engaged in pimping at Sanciangko St. late the other night.

The victims were identified as a certain "Negro" who died on the spot and his common-law wife identified only as "Mercy" who died several hours later at the Cebu City Medical Center. The couple lived at sitio Bato, barangay Ermita.

The assailants were two men, who were riding a yellow motorcycle.

A security guard of a nearby establishment, who witnessed the shooting, said that the victims were loitering around the area when the assailants, who wore helmets approached them and shot Negro.

The victim tried to flee and his common-law wife begged for mercy from the assailants, but was instead hit by the hail of bullets at the back of her head.

Negro was only able to run a few meters before he slumped dead on the sidewalk.

Responding policemen were still able to bring Mercy to the hospital where doctors frantically tried to save her.

When the woman also fell, the assailants reportedly just casually walked back to their motorcycle, said the witness, and then fled towards the direction of Fuente Osmeña on Osmeña Boulevard.

The police recovered a slug from a still undetermined caliber of weapon aside from three empty shells from a caliber .45.

Residents of the area said the Negro was also a jeepney dispatcher and was known to engage in what they termed as "tumba saging," which means stealing the belongings of drunk men, who engage the services of commercial sex workers.

SPO3 Dennis Moga told The Freeman yesterday that they are still conducting a follow up investigation to know real names of the victims. As of press time, no relatives came to their office to identify the fatalities.

A man, who said he was an uncle of Negro was at the crime scene the other night and said that the victim was once detained at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC), which was also attested too by another kibitzer.

The man, who said he was related to the victim, however said that he does not know Negro's real name as that is how he has known the victim, who he learned he was related to only a few years ago.

There are now 150 victims of summary execution in the city since the first death of this nature was recorded on December of 2004.