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Eight people were killed, including at least four children, and six
wounded in a shooting spree at a small farming community in Laguna
province on Monday, police said.
They said the unidentified suspect ran amuck
using an automatic rifle while residents slept in the early hours of
the morning in Urnalan village in Laguna, just south of Manila.
The suspect strafed four houses made of light
materials, causing the deaths. Bullets found at the crime scene came
from a single M-16 rifle, police said.
According to reports reaching the police
national headquarters, those killed were Dennis Balisong, 29; Gladys
Balisong, 7; Gladyn Balisong, 7; Gerry Salad, 49; Gloria Pili, 39;
Mary Jane Pili, 12; Sarah Pili, 9; and Julian Pili, 4.
Those injured were identified as Maria Balisong,
31; Denmark Balisong, 5; Aurelio Abanilla, 52; Vicente Redondo, 42;
Cherry May Pili, 17; and Erika Pili, 8.
Motive puzzles police
“We have yet to establish the motive,”
regional police chief Ricardo Padilla said over local radio. “We
believe it was done by only one person.”
Police are looking at the possibility that the
gunman has a grudge against the victims. The suspect also shot and
killed farm animals in the area, leading police to suspect the
gunman might be mentally troubled.
Padilla admitted that they are having a hard
time determining the real motive behind the killing, because the
casualties have “no common denominator.” The victims were
“lowly farmers” and were not involved in a land dispute, he
added.
Also on Monday, a retired policeman, Senior
Police Officer 4 Florencio Peria, was placed under police custody at
Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna, after forensic investigators who
responded to the crime scene in Barangay Urnalan recovered a
magazine that had his name on it.
The incident happened three days after nine
people were shot and killed at close range in an apparent bank heist
in Cabuyao, another Laguna town, on Friday, the worst killing in the
province in recent history.
-- AFP With Maricel V. Cruz
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