Three in family killed in Zamboanga gun attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Three members of a family were killed with a pistol by a gunman inside their house in Barangay Bolong in Zamboanga City on Friday, February 27.

Radio reports in Cotabato City on Saturday quoted officials of the Police Regional Office 9 and Capt. Perlito Abbilani, officer-in-charge of the Zamboanga City Police Station 3, said that Rodel Tarroza Espinosa, 44, his wife, Jenny Enriquez Espinosa, 43, and their 19-year-old daughter, Jennyrose, died instantly from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack.

They were together in their house in the Entrada Mangga Bolong area in Barangay Bolong when their attacker barged in and repeatedly shot them one after another, killing all three of them instantly.

PRO 9 officials said their pistol-wielding assailant immediately escaped, now the subject of a joint manhunt by personnel of the Zamboanga City Police Office and intelligence agents from military units under the Western Mindanao Command based in the city.

A five-month-old child of the couple, sleeping in a room in their house, was not harmed by the gunman, according to barangay officials.

Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso has condemned the incident and assured of his support to efforts of the police to identify the perpetrator of the atrocity.

Olaso has reportedly ordered the barangay officials in Bulong to help police investigators put a speedy closure to the incident.