Probers start piecing the puzzle about a businessman’s ambush-slay in Mabolo

Onlookers mill on the street around the Mitsubishi Montero Sports SUV of Jeffrey Gomotin, 49, a businessman, who was shot dead past 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, by motorcycle-riding men while the SUV had stopped on a read light along Juan Luna Avenue Extension, Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City. | Photo courtesy of Jay Kummer Teberio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Why was Jeffrey Gomotin, who owned a hauling company, shot dead?  Who did it?

These are the questions that investigators from the Mabolo Police Station are now trying to find an answer to as they try to piece the puzzle that led to Gomotin’s bloody demise.

Gamotin was driving his Mitsubishi Montero Sport SUV and had stopped on a red light along Juan Luna Avenue Extension,  just meters away from the Mabolo Police Station sometime past 9 p.m. on Sunday, September 22, when two men riding in tandem on a motorcycle came from behind and sidled up to the driver’s side of the SUV.

The back rider then pulled out a gun, pumped bullets into the driver’s window before quickly fleeing south traversing the A. Soriano Avenue.  Gomotin was left to die inside his vehicle with a gunshot wound on the left side of his head and lower chest.

Read more: Man shot dead inside SUV in Cebu City

Gomotin, from Barangay Looc, Mandaue City, was about to head to an uptown mall to fetch his family after he met his former business partner in Mandaue City, police said.

Gomotin’s family members were still puzzled why he was shot dead, according to Police Staff Sergeant Ador Bacalso, day desk officer of Mabolo police.

Gomotin  owned a hauling company that he operated from  his home, Bacalso said.

Bacalso said there were no other information from the kin about threats received by the victim or if there were known enemies the victim had talked about before he was killed.

Bacalso said the police will have to start gathering their own background information while also searching for evidence and securing witnesses that can help trace the assailants./elb

Editor’s Note: This version was updated to reflect a correction made by the Mabolo Police Station: Gomotin operated a hauling company and was not a charcoal wholesaler as earlier reported.  The police misheard “hauling”  and thought it was in  “uling” (charcoal) business that Gomotin was engaged in.