A police investigator of the Crime Scene Investigation unit examines the bullet holes on the window glass of the car driven by businessman Jonathan Emmanuel Go. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
A Cebu City businessman survived an ambush attempt by two assailants who fired shots at his car as it rolled out of his gated compound in Happy Valley in barangay Guadalupe past 7 a.m. yesterday.
Jonathan Emmanuel Go, 38, was driving his 7-year-old daughter to school when the incident happened.
Go was wounded in the left side of the body while the little girl was wounded in the arm. Her nanny who sat in the back seat was not injured.
Go and his daughter were taken to a private hospital where they were treated and declared out of danger.
The family’s red Toyota Vios sedan had just left the front gate when two men flanked the car and fired at each side of the vehicle through the tinted windows. This explains why Go’s daughter who was in the front seat, was injured in the right arm.
The motive of the attack still has to be established. SPO1 Ruth Violango, homicide investigator, said the police are trying to find out if the shooting was related to business matters or a personal conflict.
Some scenes of the attack were recorded by the CCTV camera installed in the house of Go’s cousin in the compound. Based on the footage, the ambush took place at 7:16 a.m. on a Monday.
SPO1 Violango said the victim’s wife Hazel told police she wasn’t aware of anyone having a conflict with her husband.
Police said Go was connected with AGL Surplus, a distributor of second hand vehicles, and was engaged in the buy and sell of car spare parts.
Two bullet holes were found on the driver’s side window, and one on the passenger’s side.
WITNESS
One of Go’s helpers, who was peeling a pineapple at a roadside fruit stand, said he noticed two men wearing ball caps loitering outside the compound. He said one stood outside the gate as if waiting for someone to come out while the second man kept walking back and forth in front.
When the sedan pulled out of the compound, they approached both sides of the car and fired. A third man was seen waiting on a motorcycle 50 meters away. The gunmen used this as their getaway vehicle.
After the shooting, it was Go’s wife and the helper who reached the victims first and rushed them to the hospital.
“Kun makakita ko og balik sa dagway, makaila ko niya. Kalit sad kaayo ang hitabo”, said the helper. (If I see their faces again, I could recognize them. It happened very quickly.)
Senior Inspector Allan Rosario, chief of Guadalupe police station, said they have leads in the case that are being pursued.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he wanted the police force to find the shooters and bring them to justice.
He appealed to businessmen who feel their life is in danger to coordinate with the police or hire their own security personnel.
Last May 25, businesswoman Eleanor Rivera was shot past 10 p.m. in her car in a spur-of-the-moment holdup on the road in front of Ayala Heights subdivision in barangay Babag.
Police arrested and charged two suspects, Jose Emmanuel Ricards and a boy, on June 4. The victim’s white Chevrolet SUV was taken along with her laptop and P50,000 cash. The car was later abandoned on the road.
The mayor said the city government already provided additional vehicles and equipment for the police, but there was little the city can do to address the shortage of policemen.
Mayor Rama said he doesn’t want the city’s peace and order to be used as an issue against him in the 2016 election.
A series of robberies of LBC courier outlets in Cebu City last month prompted the mayor to send notices of temporary closure to LBC offices that don’t have security guards or CCTV cameras.
Rama yesterday said a suggestion to restrict persons riding in tandem on motorbikes was not the answer.
“It would be difficult to be stopping all riders. Otherwise, why do we still sell motorcycles?”
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