GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 27 Nov) – Two police officers were gunned down hours from each other while another policeman was wounded when a suspected gunman riding tandem in a motorcycle fired at a police roadblock minutes after the first shooting incident as violent incidents continue to erupt in the city, radio reports said.
Police Officer 1 Franklin Akiatan reportedly failed to reach the Mindanao Medical Center alive, just minutes after he was shot by an unidentified gunman near a food chain in Calumpang around 10:30 a.m.
Akiatan’s killing, according to reports gathered from the local stations of Bombo Radyo and Radio Mindanao Network, was allegedly caught on the CCTV of the said food chain as he was accompanying a two-year-old grandson to the said store.
Moments after the shooting incident, PO1 Anthony Santillan was wounded when a motorcycle-riding gunman fired at a roadblock immediately set up to prevent the police killers from fleeing the city.
Police are still determining the motive behind the slaying of Akiatan.
About 5:15 p.m., SPO1 Raul Kapati was gunned down by an unidentified gunman near the dxMD radio station along the national highway.
Moments later, the driver of the getaway motorcycle was reportedly left behind dead by his companion near the Sinawal Bridge, less than two kilometers away, after they shot it out with two pursuing armed men believed to be companions of Kapati.
The identity of the slain getaway driver is still unknown while his companion, believed to be the trigger man, was reportedly able to escape. Witnesses said the gunman was also wounded.
Police are still conducting hot pursuit for the fleeing suspect.
Kapati was reportedly detailed as bodyguard of Hannah Paglangan who was seriously wounded, as were her driver-son and two bodyguards, two weeks ago in a botched ambush try outside a café in this city.
Paglangan is head of a Blaan clan that is claiming part of the 990 hectares of land from a cancelled pasture lease in Lanton village here.
Kapati was not around when Paglangan was ambushed.
A week after Paglangan survived the ambush, Loreto Gawan, a member of a rival clan that is also claiming portion of the said former pasture lease was also shot and killed by still unidentified gunman while on his way home.
Police authorities however are still determining if the latest spate of killings is related to the conflicting land claims that have already claimed more than a dozen of lives. (Edwin Espejo / MindaNews contributor)