BY SHIELA G. GELERA
The vehicle of a retired policeman accelerated and hit his laundry woman, causing her death in Purok Sawmill, Barangay Bata in Bacolod City, at about 8 a.m. yesterday.
Haidie Torres, 59, also of the barangay, sustained injuries and was declared dead by an attending physician at the Queen of Mercy Hospital, a police report said.
Investigation showed that Leomel Gonzaga, 54, boarded his Mitsubishi Strada pickup truck that was parked at their narrow garage.
When he started the engine and moved the pickup truck, the vehicle suddenly accelerated and hit Torres, who was in front of it, attending to her laundry, P/Staff Sgt. Richard Dema-ala, duty traffic investigator of Station 3, said.
It was Gonzaga who rushed Torres to the hospital, Dema-ala said, adding the death certificate showed that the cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Torres had been the laundry washer of Gonzaga for quite a long time now, Dema-ala added.
SHOOTING
Meanwhile, a former drug surrenderer was wounded when unidentified suspect/s opened fire at his Toyota Vios car near Trinity School at Villa Angela in Barangay Villamonte, Bacolod, at about 7 p.m. Friday.
Mark Anthony Cubos, of Barangay 4 in Bacolod, sustained gunshot wounds on his face and body. P/Maj. Charles Gever, Station 4 chief, said yesterday that Cubos had managed to drive his car to the nearest check-up point, where he asked for help.
The car of Cubos had bullet holes, while 12 empty shells were recovered from the crime scene.
Gever said the case is still under investigation and no motive has been established yet since the victim had requested time for him to recuperate first, before going through the probe.
The police are still looking for witnesses and gathering closed-circuit television camera footage, Gever added.*
