Laborer, storekeeper killed in Cotabato City gun attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A gunman shot dead a female storekeeper and a male laborer in a gun attack at a market site in Barangay Mother Poblacion in Cotabato City early Saturday.

Major John Vincent Bravo, chief of the Cotabato City Police Precinct 1, told reporters on Sunday that the victims, Guiamel Kahal, 55, and the 48-year-old Bai Sla Sendad Kamid, died on the spot from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.

Kamid has just opened the roadside store where she worked while Kahal, an all-around laborer serving owners of stores in the area, was sipping coffee in its entrance when a gunman casually approached them and shot them one after another.

Their attacker immediately scampered away amid the commotion caused by the gunshots that reverberated through the scene.

Bravo said their investigators are still trying to establish the identity of the duo’s male killer and his motive for perpetrating the atrocity.