AGAYAN DE ORO -- A man was killed while three others were wounded after a brawl inside a resto bar along Velez-Fernandez Sts. in this city turned into a shooting spree Tuesday morning.
Police identified the lone fatality as Khalid Tomawis, 29, married and a resident of Xavier Estate, one of this city's upscale subdivisions at Upper Carmen.
Faissal sustained two gunshot wounds. Doctors at a government hospital in the city declared him dead on arrival.
Wounded were Jeomil Babason, 21, single and a resident of Barangay Gusa; and Jeremiah Rodrigo, 18, of Camaman-an, both in this city.
Police are still trying to establish whether the third victim, identified as Salman Datumulok, was among those wounded in the shooting incident.
Datumulok was brought by five unidentified men to a hospital here shortly after the shooting, police said.
Initial investigation indicated that Faissal and the suspect's group of four were having a drinking spree at Maxi resto bar past 3 a.m. Tuesday prior to the shooting.
Witnesses said the two groups initially engaged in a free-for-all fight near the bar's cashier counter when an unidentified customer darted outside toward a vehicle parked in the distance.
Suddenly, a man indiscriminately opened fire inside the resto bar.
Police said two security guards assigned at the bar were not able to neutralize the suspects and the victims since both were unarmed.
"Kalit ra man gud kaayo to sir. Wala pud ko kabantay kon kinsa sa ilang grupo ang nauna ug abot. Bisan mga night shift nga waiters ug waitresses wala kabantay (The incident was so sudden. We were unaware and could not pinpoint who among the group arrived first. Even waiters and waitresses did not know how it happened)," Jeneth Seno, the resto bar's night-shift supervisor, told the police.
She said the suspects had ordered beers before the brawl.
"We could not recognize their faces, too," Seno told investigators.
SPO1 Jay Buna Labis, of the Divisoria police station, said that based on four empty shells recovered at the crime scene, they have determined that the suspects were armed a with .45 caliber pistol.
Labis said the suspects then fled in a black pickup (plate number LGN-394).
Police, who conducted a follow-up investigation at the hospital, later found out that five unidentified men on board a black pickup also brought with them a victim.
Investigators are trying to identify the owner of the pickup and the motive behind the incident. (Loui S. Malisa/Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
