Shooters’ club prexy, wife shot dead by vendor

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga — The president of the Pampanga Shooters’ Club and agent of the National Bureau of Investigation and his wife were killed after being peppered with bullets from a hand pistol fired by a vendor-shooter in front of their house at Dalisay St. in Pilar Village here at about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Police chief Senior Supt. Sonny Cunanan identified the victims as veterinarian Dr. Ricardo Martin and his wife Maricris, also a veterinarian, both 40 years old. Ricardo was among the best known sharpshooter in this province and had been president of the Pampanga Shooters’ Club for many years.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Regional Director Samuel Fiji said Ricardo was also a confidential agent of his agency and was a member of the NBI Agent’s Club. He said the NBI is looking into the case.

Although investigators recovered seven empty shells from a caliber .45 pistol at the crime scene, medico-legal experts counted five bullet wounds in the shoulder, chest and lower abdomen of Ricardo and six bullet wounds in the abdomen and shoulder of Maricris. The count apparently included bullet exit wounds, but investigators said only seven shots were fired, all hitting the two victims.

Cunanan said that the Martin couple’s housemaid, called Rowena, identified the suspect as one Abel, reportedly a vendor of a power reducing device. The suspect had reportedly visited the Martins residence at least five times before asking for Ricardo who was not at home.

"By all indications, the suspect was a gun expert, since neighbors said that they heard what seemed to be gunfire from an automatic rifle. Only an expert can do that using a caliber .45 pistol," said local sharpshooter Jab Tolentino.

Investigators said Ricardo had just arrived home to fetch his wife for a meeting at 8 p.m. at Jezza restaurant here when he saw the suspect on a motorcycle waiting for him at the gate. Witnesses said they saw Ricardo, who left his pistol in his car, talking to the suspect before shots rang out Maricris, carrying her one-year-old son in one arm, was going out of the house.

Maricris was seen running around the family car to flee from the suspect who went the other way to confront and shoot her frontally on the other side of the vehicle.

Tolentino said one indication that the suspect was a gun expert was that he successfully avoided harming the child on Maricris’ right arm. "She was hit on the left shoulder instead," he said. — With Ric Sapnu