MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato (PNA) – Police have launched a manhunt against two men riding tandem on a motorbike who shot and wounded an off-duty police officer in Pikit, North Cotabato.
Major Maxim Peralta, Pikit police chief, identified the victim as Patrolman Brian Singco, a resident of Barangay Poblacion and a member of the Pikit municipal police station.
“This is work-related, Patrolman Singco is a police officer who has been religiously performing his job as a law enforcer,” Peralta said in an interview Thursday, Sept. 15.
He added several “persons of interest” are being considered to have carried out the attack.
Singco, 33, was off duty Wednesday, Sept. 14, and working on the fence of his residence on Crossing Cuevas and Fernandez Streets in Barangay Poblacion when he was shot once at around 4 p.m. by a gunman who fled with an accomplice on a motorbike.
Singco sustained a bullet wound in his abdomen and is now undergoing treatment.
Pikit had been rocked by a series of shooting incidents and grenade attacks triggered by “rido” (family feud) over the past several months.
Peralta said more police personnel have been deployed in Pikit to prevent the escalation of hostilities.