Entrepreneur shot, hurt in Carbon; man, 10-yr-old boy also wounded

A 22-year-old shellcraft entrepreneur, who is a nephew of a city policeman, was shot and wounded at the busy Carbon Market in barangay Ermita yesterday morning during a shooting that also hit and injured an unwary man and a 10-year-old boy.

The City Police homicide section said the victims were Billbixby Regner, 60-year-old Felix Masong, and 10-year-old Rodney Pardillo.

Homicide policeman PO3 Henry Orbiso said a lone and unidentified gunman approached and shot Regner, who was walking along Calderon Street.

The wounded Regner however managed to run toward Manalili Street and the interior part of the market. The assailant fired more shots while chasing Regner but hit Masong and the boy instead.

Masong was walking along Manalili Street when a stray bullet grazed his right leg. The boy, on the other hand, was trying on a pair of slippers he was about to buy from a vendor when a bullet hit his neck and sent him crashing to the ground, still clutching with the slippers.

The bullet got lodged on the boy's neck, and his mother-a sidewalk vendor-frantically took him to the Cebu City Medical Center.

An off-duty policeman of the Carbon Police, PO1 Allan Caumiran, who was near the area at the time heard the gunfires and quickly responded. He said he first saw Regner running from Calderon Street.

Thinking initially that the running man was a snatcher, Caumiran gave chase but was surprised when Regner crashed into a display of used clothings for sale.

Caumiran found Regner already bloodied, prompting him to bring Regner to CCMC. Caumiran and Orbiso said that before Regner lost consciousness on the way to the hospital, he was able to name his assailant as somebody named Alex Muslim.

Investigators are still trying to determine the motive of the shooting, and the identity of the gunman. They have so far learned that Regner was in the area supposedly to buy empty shells of "kinhason" for his shellcraft business. - Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE