ORANI, Bataan – A municipal fire chief and one of his firemen died while a woman was seriously wounded during a shooting incident Saturday night inside a house in Barangay Tagumpay here.
PO1 Angelito Bato, Orani police desk officer, identified the fatalities as Senior Fire Officer2 Charlie Mendoza, 52 and Fire Officer2 Enrico Caraan, 44. Seriously wounded was Arlyn Lopez, 47, of Barangay Talahib, Orani.
Dr. Susan Galvez, attending physician of the Orani Emergency Hospital, declared the two officers of the Bureau of Fire Protection dead on arrival. Reports showed that marshal of Orani but transferred to the BFP in Dinalupihan, Bataan only last Friday, sustained a lone gunshot wound on his left chest.
Caraan, driver/operator/nozzleman at BFP in Orani, was hit twice in the chest and left lower back. Lopez was hit six times in different parts of the body and was undergoing operation at the Bataan General Hospital in Balanga City, police said.
Scene of the Crime Operatives recovered from the crime scene a caliber .45 pistol registered to Mendoza with
an empty magazine, six spent shells, two fired bullets and three bullet fragments.
Initial reports said Mendoza allegedly shot himself in the chest after shooting Caraan and Lopez at about 9:10 p.m. Caraan reportedly was mediating between the fire chief and Lopez who by then were in heated argument.
Teresita Benitez said the fire chief and the woman arrived in their house already quarrelling. Benitez lives in the house rented by Caraan and her daughter, Caraan’s live-in-partner. She said her son-in-law and the fi re chief began drinking gin.
“Nanonood ako sa TV ng “Magpakailanman” nang makita kong nagkakainitan si hepe at ang babae at pagkatapos nakarinig ako ng maraming putok kaya nagtago kami,” the old woman said. Chief Insp. Arnel Dial,
Orani police chief, said investigations are still ongoing.
