Off duty soldier slain in NoCot highway ambush
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 09:00 AM Fri Jul 21, 2023
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By:
Edwin O. Fernandez with DXND Radyo Bida report
Private First Class John Ian Paul Castor, 30 of Kabacan, North Cotabato. (Contributed photo)
KABACAN, North Cotabato - Uidentified gunmen ambushed and killed Thursday night a off duty soldier in Barangay Kayaga here at past 6 p.m., police said.
Major Maxim Peralta, Kabacan town police chief, identified the fatality as Private First Class John Ian Paul Castor, 30, assigned with the 90th Infantry Battalion based in Pikit, North Cotabato.
Peralta said in a radio interview that Castor was driving his Honda XR 150 going to Kabacan when two men on separate motorbike opened fire, hitting the soldier in his back and fell off his bike.
Police recovered empty shells for cal .45 pistol. His motorcycle was missing and believed to be taken by the gunmen.
However, during pursuit operation, the suspects abandoned the victim's vehicle beside the highway and another motorbike, a Suzuki raider, believced to be the getaway vehicle in Datu Montawal, Maguindanao del Sur.
Follow up operations continue, Peralta said.