Trader killed in Navotas

Two sisters, both fishbrokers on their way to the consignacion in Malabon, were ambushed by four unidentified gunmen yesterday morning in Navotas.

The younger of the two victims died of multiple gunshot wounds even as the elder sister, who was then driving their owner type jeep was taken to an undisclosed hospital.

Superintendent Billy Beltran, Navotas police chief, identified the lone fatality as Carmela Sengco Chua, 44, of San Jose, Navotas. She was taken to the Tondo General Hospital by witnesses Efren de Leon and Amador de Leon, but was declared dead on arrival by attending physicians.

Chief Inspector Filemon Porciuncula, Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) medico-legal officer who autopsied Chua’s body, said the victim died of internal bleeding in the head and body.

He said Chua sustained a gunshot wound each in the upper left part of the head lacerating her brain, in the neck and behind the right ear, one in the trunk and three in the left upper arm.

The elder victim, 46, who will not be named for safety reasons as requested by family, was believed to be the main target of the assailants. Witnesses told probers the latter was the first to be shot by the suspects. Chua, after seeing her sister hit in the face, embraced her and took seven bullets from the suspect’s caliber .45 pistols.

Senior Inspector Domingo Alminana, of SOCO said that the suspects intended to kill their target as shown by the number of gunshot wounds Chua received. Although the victims’ cell phones and shoulder bags were taken by the suspects, these were likely intended to throw off the police and make it appear more as a robbery case to hide the real motive for the killing.

Probers said the shooting took place at around 7:20 a.m. some 200 meters from the surviving sisters’ residence while on board an owner type jeep (WFR-150). A bullet hole on the windshield marked the first shot even as a bilao of pancit and other food in plastic bags, the victims’ breakfast, littered the car floor.

Police initially theorized the motive could be business rivalry. The victims’ family allegedly also owns some fishponds in Bulacan.

Police are now conducting follow up investigation on the incident. — With Pete Laude