Count has now reached 131 victims

After a lull of just a few days, suspected vigilantes were at it again killing one and wounding another in the downtown area, just meters from THE FREEMAN office shortly before dawn yesterday.

And now the count is 131.

The fatality was identified as Samuel Motos, 29 years old and a former inmate of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC). His companion Lyndon Sanjorjo, 21 years old, survived the attack and is still in serious condition at the hospital. The two of them are residents of Logarta St. in barangay San Roque.

PO2 Edario Manatad of the Crime Against Person desk yesterday said that both victims sustained gunshot wounds in the different parts of their bodies. The assailants were onboard a motorcycle.

Sanjorjo, who was the first one who got hit, managed to fool the assailants when he pretended to be dead. He sustained a gunshot wound on his belly and was also hit twice on the left portion of his body.

He reportedly played dead when he was hit while the attackers chased after Motos, who tried to run away.

Chased by the gunman, Motos jumped into a creek at D. Jakosalem St., in the portion between Colon and V. Gullas Sts., but this did not save him.

The gunman reportedly fired at Motos before fleeing when curious on-lookers started to approach the scene. Witnesses said that the two assailants fled towards V. Gullas St.

Manatad said that based on the statement of the witnesses, the victims were walking at corner Colon and D. Jakosalem sts. and were talking with each other when fired at by the back rider.

Manatad said that when they arrived at the scene, the barangay tanods and residents had already brought Sanjorjo to the Cebu City Medical Center while the other tanods were frantically trying to fish Motos out of the creek.

Motos, who was still alive when fished out of the creek, reportedly admitted that he was once an inmate of the BBRC by nodding his head when asked.

JO1 Catherine Sintos of the BBRC said that Motos was released from the BBRC last March 2, 2004 after serving a one-year term for robbery. There were no records about Sanjorjo that were found.

Based on the latest record of the Crime against Person desk, the victims were respectively numbers 130 and 131 among those attacked by vigilantes. Only a few of them have survived and most of the victims also had derogatory records.