Philippine officials on Monday mourned a government prosecutor who was fatally shot in Philadelphia and called for the perpetrator to stand trial.
John Albert Leilo and his mother were on their way to the airport to board a flight early Saturday when someone in a black car fired several shots at their Uber at a red light near the University of Pennsylvania, police said. Laylo was shot in the back of the head and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Sunday, police said.
Consul General of the Philippines Elmer Cato met Leilo’s mother at the hospital and said she was slightly injured by glass fragments during the shooting.
It was unclear whether the Uber driver was injured. No one has been arrested. Authorities did not reveal an alleged motive, nor did they say whether Leilo, his mother or the Uber driver were intentionally targeted.
Police say the investigation so far shows that the shooting was arbitrary, possibly related to road rage, CBS Philadelphia reported.
The Consulate General of the Philippines said the victim was a lawyer for the Philippine government, the station said.
UNDERSTANDING: Philadelphia police say a 36-year-old man is visiting Phila. from the Philippines is dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. Police confirmed that the victim was John Albert Leilo, a government lawyer from the Philippines, according to the Consulate General. (1) @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/us7iHYPQTI
– Joe Holden (@ JoeHoldenCBS3) June 19, 2022
Detectives are currently trying to remove video from surveillance to identify the suspect vehicle, the station said.
Cato said he had assured Laylo’s mother that the Philippine government would help bring his remains home. “We also liaise with the police and stressed the importance of our request that they bring the perpetrator of this incident to justice,” Cato said in a statement.
Leilo, 35, worked in Manila as a lawmaker for opposition senator Leila de Lima from 2016 to 2018, after which he left to pursue graduate studies. “He was so young and still full of dreams,” de Lima said in Manila on Monday, expressing hope that the suspect would be brought to justice immediately “for the brutal and senseless act.”
Leilo’s mother posted on Facebook on Sunday, saying she was on vacation with her son, whom she named Jal.
“I never imagined or dreamed that … the end of our vacation would be like this!” Leah Bustamante Laylo wrote in a post accompanied by snapshots of her and her son touring sites in New York, Washington and Philadelphia. “We traveled together and we have to go home together! I’ll bring him home in a box soon!”
Cato, who is based in New York, said the mother and son were on their way to Philadelphia International Airport to catch a flight to Chicago, after which they had to fly to California on the way to Manila.
They were in Philadelphia to visit his cousin, and the shooting happened about five minutes after Laylo and his mother left his cousin’s apartment, Cato said.
On Facebook, Leilo’s mother posted photos of happier moments from their trip to the United States.
His mother said in part in a post: “I can’t explain the weight I feel in my heart. It took me hours to publish this because I still can’t believe it happened.
Philadelphia, along with other major cities in the United States, is experiencing an increase in gun violence. In a remarkable episode on June 4, a gunfight in the South Street entertainment district, about 3 miles from the shooting that killed Laylo, killed three people and injured several others.
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