Lapu-Lapu cops try to identify 5 masked gunmen involved in Babag killing

Five armed assailants barge into man’s house, shoot him dead as he was preparing to go to sleep

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police are turning to security camera footage in the hopes of identifying the five masked gunmen, who barged into the house of 58-year-old man in Purok Judas Belt, Barangay Babag, Lapu-Lapu City and shot him dead as his common law wife and his minor daughter cowered in fear in another part of their two-story house.

The attackers, who were wearing bonnets, hurriedly left the house after they killed Edwin Moralde, and fled the area on their motorcycles, said Police Chief Master Sergeant Candido Barinque, desk officer of Station 3 of LLCPO or the Hoops Dome Police Station in Barangay Gun-ob, Lapu-Lapu City.

“Ang kuyog ani niya sa balay iyang live in and anak unya gi saka sa second floor dayung pusil unya sibat dayun sa mga suspetsado,” said Barinque.

(His common law wife or live in partner and his daughter were with him in the house when the assailants barged into the house and shot him and fled.)

Barinque said that five gunmen also did not hurt the victim’s common law wife and her minor daughter.

Investigation showed that the armed assailants, who were wearing black bonnets, arrived on motorcycles at past 8 p.m., barged into the Moralde’s house, asked the wife and the minor daughter where Moralde was, went up to the room on the second floor after learning he was there, and shot him dead.

Moralde’s girlfriend said that Moralde was then preparing to go to sleep when the masked gunmen barged into the room on the second floor of the house and shot him several times.

Barinque said Moralde suffered several gunshot wounds in his body.

He said they were still conducting follow up operations and were looking at the closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of nearby establishments in the area that could have caught the fleeing assailants.

Barinque said they were also checking on the background of the victim to see if he was possibly involved in illegal activities or if he had some conflict with other persons that could shed light on his killing.

The shooting attack on Moralde was the third one in three months in Lapu-Lapu City.

Read: Ahong offers P1M reward for the arrest of Mactan brgy councilor Zandro Augusto’s killer

Last September 19, 2020, Barangay Councilor Zandro Augusto of Mactan was shot dead by a motorcycle-riding gunman outside the Lapu-Lapu Public market in Barangay Poblacion.

The shooting attack prompted Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan to offer a P1 million reward to anyone who could provide information that could lead to the arrest of the killer.

Read: Lapu police has persons of interest in lawyer’s ambush

Then on October 10, Lawyer James Joseph Gupana was shot and wounded by a motorcycle-riding gunman during a daylight ambush as he was driving his car in Barangay Pajac.

Police said on October 14 that they already had persons of interest in the shooting attack of the lawyer./dbs