By MARIBETH L. SOROÑO / Managing Editor

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu – A 32-year-old mother, who was on her way to work, was waylaid by robbers and then shot in the head when she refused to give her mobile phone early dawn Tuesday in barangay Canjulao, this city.

The robbery took place just a few weeks after a graduating nursing student was shot dead by motorcycle-riding robbers when she ran for help following a mobile phone robbery.

The victim, Virginia Baguio, was waiting for a ride for work in barangay Canjulao at past 5 a.m. when the robbers blocked her way and announced the hold up, said Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Louie Oppus.

Oppus said the robbers demanded for Baguio’s cellphone, a Nokia 3310, but the victim refused to let go of her bag. Baguio tried to run but the robbers got hold of her hair and then shot her in the head point blank. Baguio left behind two kids.

A follow up operation led by Capt. Conrado Manatad, the city’s police operations chief, resulted to the arrest Julius Ryan Gingoyon, 19, one of the three suspects in the robbery-slay.

Gingoyon, son of the tanod chief of barangay Canjulao, was already at the Cebu South Bus Terminal on his way to board a Carcar City-bound bus when elements of the Lapu-Lapu City police arrested him.

Manatad said they immediately conducted the pursuit operation after receiving information that Gingoyon, before leaving his residence, allegedly conferred to a neighbor that he had just killed a woman and threw the gun away.

Although Gingoyon denied shooting the victim, it was his companion who killed the working mother. #