By Calvin Cordova CEBU CITY – A police official was gunned down while he and his wife were walking along a road in an uptown area here on Thursday afternoon. Police Lt. Col. Joie Pacito Yape Jr. succumbed to gunshot wounds in the body and head. Investigators are looking into the possibility that the motive of the attack was job-related, said Police Col. Geovanie Maines, chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO). “I have already instructed the creation of a special investigation task group (SITG) to handle the case,” said Maines. “(Yape) led several drug raids when he was assigned in Cebu and that’s one of the angles that we are looking into to find out the motive.” Maines said. Yape was a former chief of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO). He left the PIB last January and was transferred to Calbayog City. From Calbayog, Yape was moved to Camp Crame where he was tapped to be an investigator of the Internal Affairs Service. Yape arrived in Cebu last Wednesday to attend a three-day seminar on law and procurement planning. Before he was killed, Yape also attended a hearing for a drug case that stemmed from an operation that he led while he was still the PIB chief of CPPO. Yape and his wife were heading to a mall for dinner with some friends when the attack happened, police said. Yape was in civilian clothes and was not carrying a firearm during the attack, which took place around 5:30 p.m. on Molave Street in Barangay Kamputhaw. Police said while the couple was walking in front of a hotel, a man wearing a hooded jacket approached Yape and shot him. When Yape slumped on the ground, the assailant finished him off with more shots. The gunman fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice who wore a full-faced helmet. Yape was declared dead when he was brought to a hospital. Police Maj. Elizandro Quijano, chief of Police Station 2, said a security camera footage showed two men seemingly waiting for someone outside a hotel where Yape attended a seminar.