EDITORIAL — Crime and reaction

A woman was shot dead in broad daylight the other day past 11 A.M. along V. Rama Avenue, Barangay Calamba, Cebu City.

A video now being shared online shows a man on a motorcycle parking his vehicle. Seconds later, pharmacist Marjorie Llaguno, 40, a resident of Caballes Compound in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, gets off from a jeepney just nearby.

The rider gets off his motorcycle and shoots her several times before getting back on his vehicle and driving off.

The family of the victim has said they have a suspect in mind, someone who wanted her dead after she wouldn’t reconcile and get back together with him.

Such a brazen crime shooting someone in public, in broad daylight, then leaving her to die-- shouldn't go unpunished.

While the crime itself is shocking, there was another development in the video that is also quite distressing.

The shooting happened in front of someone in a white multicab.

In a twist of fate, that multicab driver was placed in a position where he or she could have quickly gotten help for the victim. But the driver decided to hightail it out of there after the shooter escaped. There are speculations that the multicab driver was part of the hit, but the vehicle was loaded with cargo and quite slow leaving the scene, so it doesn’t seem likely the driver was involved.

We cannot blame the multicab driver for panicking if that was what happened; you shouldn’t confront or drive after someone you know is armed and apparently willing to kill.

But now we can’t help but speculate that the victim could have lived if help had arrived sooner.

Because we are just human, none of us can absolutely guarantee we will act heroically or do the right things when confronted by something as shocking as an attempted murder happening right in front of us. But all of us would like to think that if we ever need help, people nearby will come to our aid.