City getting more dangerous: Latest drive-by shooting hurts 2

A little over a month since three people were killed and four others were injured in a drive-by shooting, two new victims were hurt in this scary urban phenomenon when men in a Multicab pickup opened fire at them yesterday dawn in barangay Tisa.

The victims, Giovanni Navarro, 23, and his 17-year-old cousin were sitting with a group of other youngsters by the side of the road along Katipunan Street when the Multicab passed by them, made a sharp u-turn, slowed down, and then fired indiscriminately at the group.

Navarro took several bullets in the back and legs while his cousin sustained gunshot wounds on both thighs. They were both taken to a hospital but survived their wounds.

The others in the group managed to scamper away to safety and were unhurt.

Witnesses could not determine the number of attackers, but those who saw the gunman open fire told police his face was unrecognizable because he held a tree branch with leaves in front of him, apparently to conceal his identity.

After the shooting, the Multicab sped toward Labangon and got lost in the night.

Police did not put forth a motive for the shooting, saying only that the area is a frequent hangout of fraternity or gang members. Last October 5 at shortly before midnight, two men on a motorcycle went on a shooting rampage around the city, opening fire at everyone that caught their fancy, including a group of employees of The Freeman who were at the time having a smoke outside the building.

The two men first shot a young student, Mhako Buenconsejo, who was waiting for a ride home along V. Gullas Street. The student fell to the ground after sustaining a gunshot wound in the neck. He, however, survived his injury.

As the two men drove on, they overtook a man on a motorcycle and fired. The man, Lawrence Morados, was hit on different parts of the body and crashed. He did not make it alive to the hospital.

The killers then turned right into D. Jakosalerm. As they did so, they saw several Freeman employees smoking on the steps of this paper’s new building and again opened fire. Luckily, none of them were hurt, but some of the bullets hit and bore holes in the building.

Turning left into Sanciangko, the killers fired at a group of students hanging out by the side of the road, hitting and injuring one of them, Jeffrey Romano.

They then sped toward the uptown area where, along Ascension Street, they saw William John Aznar, Lord Stephen Vasquez and Rendon Pellerin walking. Again they opened fire, hitting all three. Aznar and Vasquez later died in the hospital but Pellerin survived.

As they sped toward Uytengsu Street, they met Rey Gonzales on a motorcycle coming from the opposite direction and shot him as well. Gonzales suffered a gunshot wound on the arm.

Police later filed charges against a certain Aristotle Aves, alias Aries, whom they suspected of the killings. Aves, though, remains at large and has a P300,000 reward for his capture.

Asked to comment on the latest drive-by shooting, Cebu City police chief Sr. Superintendent Patrocinio Comendador said the city does not have enough policemen to secure the metropolis for 24 hours.

He blamed the shootings on the proliferation of loose firearms and frat or gang rivalries.

Comendador asked parents living in frat or gang infested areas to monitor their children and ask them not to hang around by the roadsides, especially at night.

He also promised to include these areas in regular police patrols. (/JST)