NPD official’s killer could be a woman – probers

MANILA, Philippines - Could the gunman in the ambush of a Northern Police District (NPD) official in Quezon City on Friday be a woman?

 Police investigators are looking into this possibility following a description given by a witness who saw the attack on Chief Inspector Romeo Ricalde Jr., NPD Special Operations Unit chief, in Barangay Pansol.

“The gunman was in a jacket with a hood. But the witness could see that the assailant had long hair,” Inspector Elmer Monsalve, head of the Homicide Investigation Section of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), said in an interview yesterday.

According to Monsalve, the witness also noted that the assailant’s frame was similar to that of a woman.

However, he said they were still getting more evidence to determine the identity of the gunman and the driver of the motorcycle, which carried the assailant. The driver was reportedly wearing a helmet.

According to Monsalve, it was also possible that the assailant was a man with long hair or who just wore a wig.

QCPD director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano said Ricalde was carrying more than P200,000 in different denominations when he was attacked, but his killers did not take the money.

Albano said P199,850; $401; and 100 euros were turned over to Ricalde’s widow.

Monsalve said they were able to get a copy of the footage taken by a surveillance camera along the street that the victim passed as he neared his home, but the video did not show anyone tailing Ricalde, who was then driving his Isuzu Sportivo.

 Earlier, his wife told investigators that Ricalde supposedly told her on the phone: “May ililigaw lang ako (I will just shake off someone tailing me).”

Monsalve said it was also possible that two teams staged the attack: one team tailed the victim and informed the assailant of Ricalde’s arrival and another one waited for him in the area where the ambush happened.

Ricalde, 40, died on the spot due to multiple gunshot wounds he sustained in the Friday night ambush. Investigators found at the crime scene 28 used cartridges of 5.56 mm rifle rounds that were used by the two suspects.

The police major had been the head of the NPD’s anti-drug unit before he was reassigned to his latest post two years ago.