Love angle eyed in slay of apl.de.ap's half-brother

ANGELES CITY – Police probers are seriously looking into the relationship of the half-brother of Black Eyed Peas member Allan Pineda with his girlfriend in their bid to solve his fatal shooting here early Tuesday morning.

Although police have no evidence yet to pin down any suspect in the killing of 21-year-old Joven Deala, Senior Superintendent Pierre Bucsit, city police chief, said they are looking into his relationship with his girlfriend, Elaine Torres.

“It’s something we are looking into because the girlfriend has a child and is said to be separated from her husband, “ Bucsit said, adding that Torres is “much older” than Deala.

Joven was a half-brother of Pineda, popularly known as apl.de.ap, on the mother side. Pineda dropped his paternal surname Lindo after his black American father, a former US Air Force soldier based in Clark Field, abandoned him and his mother when he was still young.

Bucsit said Deala was shot in the left temple with a caliber 9-mm pistol.

Investigators said that except for Torres, there seemed to be no other witness to the shooting, contrary to earlier reports.

Deala’s remains lie in state at his family’s residence in Barangay Sapang Bato where Pineda was born and raised before he migrated to the US 28 years ago.

Deala was with Torres in his Fortuner sports utility vehicle, eating fried chicken they had bought from a fast food outlet, when he was shot by one of two men who approached them on foot.

Relatives said they expect Pineda to come home to attend the burial of his half-brother.