The police are hunting down three brothers for allegedly hacking and shooting seven people, including two minors, during a street fight in Navotas City Tuesday afternoon.
Inspector Celso Hernandez, Navotas City police staff duty officer, identified the suspects as Leonardo, Marcelino and JR Pahayahay, all residents of Tres Tabing Dagat Street in Barangay Daang Hari.
Cousins Ariel Ramos, 38; and Nilo Ramos, 26, sustained hack wounds while Rolando Vargaz, 20; Jeffrey Saguma, 15; Erwin Maraya, 26; Nerissa Vargaz, 46; and Benncel Canton, 9, suffered bullet wounds from an improvised shotgun and a .38 caliber handgun.
The victims, all neighbors of the suspects, are confined at the Tondo General Hospital.
Police said the melee was triggered by one of the suspects’ neighbors, a certain Nanan, who challenged the brothers to a fight. The suspects, who had been drinking, armed themselves with firearms and a bolo and confronted Nanan.
Nanan fled but his two friends, Ariel and Nilo Ramos, came to his defense, starting a free-for-all. The Ramoses lay wounded on the ground, at least seven bystanders were hit by stray bullets, while the suspects fled with their weapons.
Hernandez said the Ramoses and the Pahayahays had a confrontation earlier that day. – Pete Laude