NPD anti-drug cop, wife hurt in ambush

MANILA, Philippines - A Northern Police District (NPD) anti-narcotics policeman and his wife were wounded when they were ambushed by two motorcycle-riding men outside a shopping mall in Divisoria, Manila Thursday night.

Police Officer 2 Carlo Pineda, 42, assigned at the NPD’s District Anti-illegal Drugs (DAID) unit, was maneuvering his black Mitsubishi pickup truck a few meters from the Tutuban Shopping Mall when they were attacked. His wife, Annalee, 32, and their four-year-old son were both in the front passenger seat.

“Pineda was hit in the left shoulder and left side of his body while his wife was hit in the back. Their son was not injured, for the mother embraced him,” said Chief Inspector Romeo Ricalde Jr., who heads the NPD-DAID’s Special Operations Task Force.

He said Pineda was already “safe” but Annalee’s condition was reported to be “unstable.” The couple are confined at the Metropolitan Medical Center, where witness Neil Valencia brought them after the attack.

Witnesses said Pineda saw the two men approach and managed to draw his gun and shoot it out with his attackers. They also said the gunmen could have been waiting for the victims where their pickup was parked, according to Police Officer 1 Louie Masangkay of the Manila Police District (MPD).

Ricalde said his office is closely coordinating with the MPD because there is a big possibility that the ambush was related to Pineda’s work as an anti-drug policeman.

Investigators recovered slugs from a .40 caliber pistol at the crime scene.