Bystanders seriously hurt in Lanao Norte gun attack
TIMRA Reports • 10:15 AM Fri Jul 21, 2023
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By:
John M. Unson
Police forensic experts sift through the scene of the gun attack in Lala, Lanao del Norte. (From Lala MPS)
COTABATO CITY - Two villagers were seriously wounded in a gun attack Thursday in Lala, Lanao del Norte.
Major Allan Oniana, municipal police chief, said Friday the victims, Mila Lacasa Atentista and Marjo Bondaug Ramas, who sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of their bodies, are now both in a hospital.
Atentista and Ramas were talking to each other along a stretch of a highway in Barangay Raw-an when two men riding a motorcycle together pulled over close to them, pulled out pistols from their waists and opened fire.
Their attackers immediately escaped towards the direction of nearby Baroy town.
Oniana said investigators are still trying to identify the culprits and their motive for the attack.
Oniana said relatives of the badly hurt Atentista and Ramas had told probers both have no known enemies and are close to their Muslim and Christian neighbors.
The local government unit of Lala, in a statement released late Thursday, said it has directed barangay officials in Raw-an to help the municipal police put closure to the incident that caused panic among villagers whose houses are near the crime scene.