MANILA - A special investigation task group was formed for Wednesday's shooting incident in Quezon City involving actress Kim Chiu's vehicle, the local police said Thursday.
The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) created the body to establish the motive behind the incident and to identify and arrest the perpetrators, it said in a statement.
Chiu, her personal assistant, and her driver were unhurt after two unidentified men on board a motorcycle shot her van along Katipunan Avenue in Barangay UP Campus around 6 a.m. Wednesday. The suspects fled towards Commonwealth Avenue.
QCPD director Brig. Gen. Ronnie Montejo said the 10-member SITG "Chiu" will be led by Col. Enrico Vargas, the QCPD deputy director for operations.
He said all possible angles of the incident are being looked into, including a case of mistaken identity.
Investigators have started gathering testimonies from witnesses and CCTV footage to help identify the perpetrators, he added.
Motorists with dashboard cameras who may have recorded the strafing are also being encouraged to come forward.
Chiu was on her way to the taping of her ABS-CBN TV series "Love Thy Woman" when the incident happened.
In an exclusive interview aired Wednesday night on TV Patrol, the actress said she was puzzled over the motive for the strafing.
ABS-CBN condemned the incident and said it will work closely with authorities.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PENSACOLA, Florida -- The Saudi airman accused of killing three people at a US Navy base in Florida appeared to have posted criticism of US wars and quoted slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on social media hours before the shooting spree, according to a group that tracks online extremism.
Federal investigators have not disclosed any motive behind the attack, which unfolded at dawn on Friday when the Saudi national is said to have begun firing a handgun inside a classroom at the Naval Air Station Pensacola. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during a public appearance on Saturday he was not ready to label it an act of terrorism.
A vigil was held on Saturday for those wounded and killed, among them a recent Naval Academy graduate who dreamed of being a fighter pilot, according to the victim's family.
A sheriff's deputy fatally shot the gunman, authorities said, ending the second deadly attack at a US military base within a week. Within hours, Saudi Arabia's King Salman had called U. President Donald Trump to extend his condolences and pledge his kingdom's support in the investigation.
Authorities confirmed the suspect was a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force who was on the base as part of a US Navy training program designed to foster links with foreign allies. They declined to disclose his name or identify his victims.
Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, named the shooter as Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.
He was reported to have played videos of mass shootings at a dinner earlier in the week with other Saudi aviation students, according to US media reports on Saturday that cited an unnamed person briefed on the investigation.
Investigators have found no sign Alshamrani had links to international terrorist groups and think he may have radicalized on his own, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified US official. It said the airman first entered the United States in 2018, returned to Saudi Arabia, then re-entered the United States in February, and had reported for training at the base about three days before the attack.
At least three of the eight people wounded were law enforcement officers shot as they responded to the attack, officials said, including one Navy police officer and two county sheriff's deputies. They were expected to recover.
One of the dead was identified by relatives as Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23. A recent graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, he had arrived at Pensacola two weeks ago for flight training, his family said.
"Joshua Kaleb Watson saved countless lives today with his own," Watson's brother, Adam Watson, wrote on Facebook on Friday. "After being shot multiple times he made it outside and told the first response team where the shooter was and those details were invaluable."
OTHER SAUDIS QUESTIONED
In comments to reporters at the White House on Saturday, Trump said the Saudi king and crown prince were "devastated" by what took place, and that the king "will be involved in taking care of families and loved ones."
"I think they're going to help out the families very greatly," Trump said.
Six other Saudi nationals were being questioned by investigators in Florida, three of whom were seen filming the incident, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified person briefed on the investigation.
An uncle of Alshamrani, Saad bin Hantim Alshamrani, told CNN from Saudi Arabia that his nephew was 21, and "likable and mannered towards his family and the community." He said his nephew "has his religion, his prayer, his honesty and commitments."
The younger Alshamrani appeared to have posted a justification of his planned attack in English on Twitter a few hours before it began, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online Islamist extremism.
He referred to US wars in Muslim countries, writing that he hated the American people for "committing crimes not only against Muslims but also humanity," and criticizing Washington's support for Israel, SITE's analysis said. He also quoted bin Laden, the Saudi mastermind of the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, according to SITE.
Reuters has not verified the authenticity of the account, @M&MD_SHAMRANI, which was suspended by Twitter on Friday.
GLASS AND BLOOD
About 100 people gathered at the Olive Baptist Church for a vigil on Saturday, where Chip Simmons, chief deputy in the Escombia County Sheriff's office, recounted being one of the first on the scene, which he said was littered "with glass and blood, with killed and wounded lying on the floors."
"You realize in that moment that you are witnessing loss of life and hatred, but there was also heroism," Simmons said.
The base outside Pensacola, near Florida's border with Alabama, is a major training site for the Navy and employs about 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel, according to its website.
On Wednesday, a US sailor shot three civilians at the historic Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii, killing two of them before taking his own life.
Military personnel are normally restricted from carrying weapons on US bases unless they are part of their daily duties, a policy designed to reduce the risk of suicides and accidental shootings.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer was killed along with the suspect and two other officers were wounded during a shootout in southern California on Monday evening, police and news media reported.
A CHP dispatcher confirmed the shootout happened at about 5:30 p.m. (0030 GMT) in Riverside, California, about 86 kilometers east of Los Angeles just off US Interstate 215.
"One of our officers succumbed to the injuries sustained," a CHP representative said on Twitter late Monday.
The conditions of the two wounded officers were not disclosed. Police did not immediately release other details.
Initial reports from local news media at the scene said that a CHP officer on a motorcycle made a routine traffic stop, and the suspect grabbed a rifle from the vehicle and started shooting.
The officer returned fire and called for backup from the CHP, Riverside Police and Riverside Sheriff's Office, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.
It was not clear if the officer making the stop was the officer killed.
Dozens of rounds were fired, according to local media, and motorists stopped in traffic fled their vehicles and ran for cover from the gun battle.
Local broadcast media showed images of CHP patrol cars and other vehicles with shot-out windows.
Several motorists were hit with flying glass shards from bullets hitting their car windows, officials said, and were treated by paramedics at the scene.
The gunman sustained gunshots and was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, the newspaper reported.
Riverside Police officer Ryan Railsback told the newspaper that the motive behind the shooting was not yet known.
That will be part of a "very long" and "complex" investigation, Railsback said.
The name of the suspect was not immediately released.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Nine people were killed in a mass shooting early Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, police said, adding that the assailant was shot dead by responding officers.
The incident occurred shortly after 1:00 am in the popular bar and nightlife Oregon district of the city, Police Lieutenant Colonel Matt Carper said.
"We had one shooter that we are aware of and multiple victims," he told reporters.
"The shooter is deceased, from gunshot wounds from the responding officers," he said, adding no police were injured.
"We have nine victims deceased ... and we have approximately 16 more victims hospitalized right now in unknown conditions."
The suspect had opened fire on the street firing "a long gun with multiple rounds."
Police were working to identify the shooter and the FBI were on scene to provide any necessary assistance, he said.
The shooting came just hours after 20 people were killed by a gunman in El Paso, Texas.
Carper said Oregon was "a very safe part of downtown" Dayton and very popular with visitors.
"Fortunately we had multiple officers in the immediate vicinity when this incident started so there was a very short timeline of violence, for that we've very fortunate.
"It's a very tragic incident and we're doing everything we can to investigate it and try to identify the motivation behind this," said Carper.
"We're still interviewing obviously a lot of witnesses as well as officers to determine if anyone else was involved," he said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
At least 10 people were killed and an unknown number of others were wounded in a shooting incident in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday, local television and newspapers said.
Dayton police said they were on the scene of an "active shooter incident" but gave no further details.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Jane Merriman and Angus MacSwan)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
DENVER - A driver with the ride-sharing service Uber was arrested on Friday for suspicion of first-degree murder after Denver police said he fatally shot a passenger in his vehicle.
Michael Andre Hancock, 29, was being held without bond in the Denver County jail pending the formal filing of charges, according to jail records. It was unclear if he had legal representation.
According to a Denver Police probable cause affidavit, on Friday morning a man later identified as Hancock told a motorist on the side of a highway that he had just shot a rider who tried to attack him.
Police found a sedan stopped perpendicular to traffic on a ramp and a man with gunshot wounds lying on the floor board of the front passenger seat, the affidavit said.
The Denver Medical Examiner’s Office identified the dead man as Hyun Kim, 45.
Police said they removed a semi-automatic pistol from Hancock’s waistband, and later recovered 10 spent 40-caliber cartridges on the shoulder of the highway. Hancock was arrested, but police did not provide further details.
Uber said in a statement that it was “deeply troubled” by the arrest of Hancock, a contract driver with the company for nearly three years.
“Our thoughts are with the families of those involved. The driver's access to the app has been removed, and we will continue working closely with police,” Uber said.
San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc has faced criticism over its vetting of drivers.
Last November, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission fined Uber $8.9 million for allowing 57 people to drive for it although they lacked valid driver’s licenses or had committed other offenses that should have disqualified them.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON—Panic erupted among Christmas shopping crowds on London's Oxford Street on Friday evening as armed officers raced to respond to reports of shots being fired in the area but police said later they had found no evidence of gunfire or casualties.
Oxford Street, with its festive window displays and hundreds of overhead lights, was crammed with shoppers taking advantage of the Black Friday sales when the incident happened shortly after dusk.
London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement they had found no evidence of gunfire, casualties or any suspects and that the incident, which lasted for just over an hour, had been stood down.
"Given the nature of the information received, the Met responded in line with our existing operation as if the incident was terrorism, including the deployment of armed officers," they said in a statement.
A Reuters witness said panicked shoppers had fled Oxford Street and Oxford Circus underground station.
The witness saw an elderly lady and a man carrying his child knocked over in the rush. "There were people running in all directions. I didn't know which way to run," the witness said.
Britain's transport police said they had received a report of one woman suffering a minor injury in the panic.
The capital's transport operator, Transport for London, said Oxford Circus and Bond Street stations, which had been briefly shut due to the incident, had later reopened.
(Additional reporting by David Milliken, William Schomberg and James Davey; Writing by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
