SEALED OFF. Police close down with police yellow tape the area in Sinsuat Avenue, Cotabato City, where a riding-in-tandem attacked and shot two Army on Friday (Dec. 28). (Photo courtsey of City Transport Traffic Office)
COTABATO CITY – Authorities said they are hunting down motorcycle-riding gunmen who shot and critically-wounded two Army personnel along Sinsuat Ave. here Friday morning.
Senior Supt. Rolly Octavio, city police director, identified the wounded soldiers as Private First-Class Michael Haudar, 27, and Nerwin Delfin, 26, whose rank was not immediately known.
Haudar and Delfin remain in critical condition at a hospital here, Octavio said.
The victims, both members of the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion based in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, were riding a motorbike along Sinsuat Ave. when tailed by riding-in-tandem suspects who shot them at close range shortly before 9 a.m.
“The attackers sped off following the incident, leaving the victims sprawled on the pavement,” Octavio told reporters here.
Both victims sustained gunshot wounds in various parts of their bodies.
Octavio said probers are working on the identities of the gunmen, who used a blue Bajaj motorcycle with a plate number they declined to reveal, pending police follow-up operations.
"Witnesses saw the plate number of the motorbike the assailants used during the attack," he said. (PNA)
