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A Philippine government prosecutor was fatally shot in a car on his way to Philadelphia International Airport over the weekend, police said.
John Albert Leilo, 35, and his mother Lea Bustamante Leilo were on holiday together in Philadelphia on Saturday before heading to the airport in an Uber car. When the car they were in stopped at a red light near the University of Pennsylvania, a man in a black vehicle behind them shot at their car, the Philadelphia Police Department said in a press release.
Then the black car stopped next to theirs and fired a few more shots. Laylo was shot in the back of the head and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Sunday morning, according to police.
His mother said in a Facebook post that she was injured by shrapnel. It is unclear whether the driver, who was working for Uber at the time, was injured.
Police said officers responded to the scene around 4 a.m. Saturday. It is unclear whether the shooting was a deliberate or accidental attack, and the investigation is ongoing. As of Monday afternoon, police have not arrested or identified a suspect.
Elmer Cato, Consul General of the Philippines for New York, called on the Philadelphia police “to do everything possible to [the] perpetrator of justice ”on Twitter on Sunday.
Cato said Sunday that he visited Leah Leilo shortly after her son died.
“I prayed for him and assured him that we would do everything possible to get him home as soon as possible,” Cato wrote on Twitter.
In her Facebook post on Sunday, Leah Leilo shared photos from the trip, writing that they show her last happy moments with her son.
“We traveled together and we have to go home together!” Laylo said in the post. I’ll bring it home in a box soon!
Leila de Lima, a senator from the Philippines, said on Facebook that John Albert Leilo had served on her legislative team for two years.
“He was so young and still full of dreams,” she wrote.
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This year, until Saturday, there were 1,939 shooting incidents in the city – a 7 percent increase over the previous year.
There were 349 shootings between May 23 and Saturday, according to weekly figures from the Philadelphia Police Department, an increase of just under 5 percent from the previous month.
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An Uber spokesman told NBC10 Philadelphia on Monday that the company was in communication with an employee who drove on Saturday. The company added that it would co-operate in the investigation.
“The violent attack that took Mr Leilo’s life is heartbreaking and our thoughts are with his family during their grief,” the spokesman told the paper. “We hope the police will be able to arrest the perpetrators quickly.”
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