• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A former barangay captain was reported by the police to have been shot dead on Tuesday in Barangay Patun-an, Calatrava, Negros Occidental.
The 64-year-old victim, a former barangay captain of Macasilao in Calatrava, was on her way to San Carlos City, when an unidentified gunman boarded the passenger vehicle she was riding and shot her without any provocation, according to the initial investigation of the town police.
A certain Jay, 19, who was sitting beside her, was also injured in the shooting incident, having been hit by a stray bullet, according P/Maj. Wilfredo Benoman, the Calatrava police chief.
The gunman, accompanied by another unidentified suspect, immediately fled after the shooting incident, while the former barangay official, whose identity was withheld by the police, was declared dead on arrival at the Calatrava Municipal Hospital.
Recovered from the scene of the incident were two empty shells believed to be that of a 9mm pistol.
Benoman said the former barangay official succumbed to a gunshot wound in the head, while the other injured victim, who suffered gunshot injury on the shoulder, is now in a stable condition.
Police probers are looking into the possibility that her murder may have something to do with a land conflict while she was still serving as barangay captain of Macasilao in Calatrava, from 2007 to 2010.*
