Real estate firm owner survives gun attack at mall’s parking lot

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Police are looking into land dispute as a motive behind the gun attack against an owner of a real estate firm at the parking lot of a shopping mall here yesterday.

Police Major Ramel Sarona, head of Police Station 1, said the 72-year-old victim of Barangay Alijis here and his employee had lunch inside the mall.

When they were about to ride their car, one or two assailants shot them and fled, Sarona said.

The driver’s seat of the victim’s sports utility vehicle was hit by a bullet, while a van was also hit in the back, Sarona said.

The victim and his employee were unharmed.

Sarona denied that the van was owned by a politician, based on initial reports.

He said the van’s driver just parked the vehicle there, as he was having lunch when the incident happened.

Sarona said there was no closed circuit television (CCTV) camera in the parking lot.

Thus, they will have to review nearby CCTV camera footage to check the route of the fleeing perpetrators, the station commander added.

Sarona said it’s possible that the perpetrators waited for the victim and his companion to go out from the mall around 1:30 p.m.

Despite not having threats, Sarona said the victim told the police that he had a recent conflict with someone about a certain land.

After the incident, Sarona said the mall management expressed their intention to install CCTV cameras as part of their strengthened security measure.

The incident did not hamper the mall operations nor caused harm to the mall-goers, he added.