MANILA, Philippines — A policeman was shot dead by motorcycle-riding assailants in San Juan City yesterday.
Senior Police Officer 2 Solomon Cugay, assigned at the National Capital Region Police Office, died at the scene.
The incident created a traffic jam at the intersection of EDSA and Connecticut street in Barangay Greenhills, said Senior Superintendent Florendo Quibuyen, deputy director for administration of the Eastern Police District.
“Almost half of EDSA was closed so we could process the site,” Quibuyen said.
Cugay was riding his Yamaha scooter along EDSA’s southbound lane when two men on a motorcycle closed in on him at around 3:30 p.m.
Witnesses said the gunman shot Cugay in the side before emptying the gun in different parts of the victim’s body.
At least nine bullet casings from a .45 caliber pistol were recovered at the crime scene, Quibuyen said.
“We are still in the process of conducting a background investigation on Cugay to determine the motive behind his death,” he added.
Lawman gunned down
The attack on Cugay follows the murder of a drug enforcement operative at his home in Caloocan last Friday.
Caloocan police chief Senior Superintendent Restituto Arcangel said Police Officer 2 Cris Robert Castro, 31, was shot dead by two armed assailants while he was tending to his store in Palmera Homes, Barangay 175.
Castro was assigned to the Manila Police District-Raxabago station drug enforcement unit.
Arcangel said police are looking into the victim’s work in anti-illegal drug enforcement as a motive after they were tipped that the drug suspects the victim had arrested threatened to kill him once they are released.
A witness told police one of the gunmen was among the three drug suspects Castro had arrested in Tondo, Arcangel said.
Manhunt operations are ongoing for the arrest of the gunmen, the police chief said.