The 62-year-old grandmother of actress Pauleen Luna was robbed and shot by a lone gunman in a crowded market in Sta. Cruz, Manila yesterday morning.
Mercedita Jimenez, also known as “Ka Baby” among market vendors, died while being treated at the Chinese General Hospital. She sustained four gunshot wounds in the body.
The suspect in the shooting, Edison Antonio, 46, of Manuguit, Tondo, was beaten black and blue by an angry mob before he was turned over to the homicide investigators of the Manila Police District. The gun allegedly used in the shooting, a .45 caliber pistol, was recovered by the police.
According to Senior Inspector Erwin Margarejo, deputy chief of the homicide section, the victim was busy collecting payments from her credit business among market vendors when the suspect approached without a word and fired successive shots. When the victim fell, the suspect grabbed her bag containing undetermined amount of cash. The victim was rushed by market vendors at the hospital where she expired some 30 minutes later.
The attack was recorded at around 7 a.m. in front of the New Antipolo Market Vendors Credit Cooperative Office along New Antipolo street in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
Margarejo said the bag was not recovered and possibly taken away by the mob. The deputy chief said he was able to talk with Pauleen Luna at the hospital together with her younger sister and mother who is the daughter of the victim. “Miss Pauleen expressed dismay over the fate of her grandmother. She said her grandmother had no known enemies and had an open palm to all the vendors who need capital,” Margarejo said.
Police said the missing bag could contain at least P100,000 as part of the victim’s collections and loanable capital to market vendors. “Robbery is the prime motive in the shooting. The suspect could have been tailing the victim for the money contents of her bag,” Margarejo said.
The suspect, who remained unconscious inside his detention cell, is facing charges of robbery with homicide.