(Eagle News) — Police are close to identifying the gunman in the Pasay hotel attack that left more than 30 people dead, and 54 injured early Friday.
This after Senior Supt. Tomas Apolinario, Southern Police District director, said they had already tracked down a “person of interest” who could be related to the attacker.
“Through the information (provided) by the ORCR of suspected vehicles, we can know the address..What I meant was, tinitignan namin ang identity ng attacker, then tinitignan namin address niya. Ang mga andun persons of interest,” Apolinario said.
Apolinario refused to give additional details, only saying that the “person of interest,” however, denied knowing the gunman, who set himself on fire and shot himself in the head after the attack past midnight.
The police official said, however, that the “person of interest” looked like the gunman, based on footage from the closed-circuit television camera in the hotel.
He added based on initial information, the gunman was not a mainstay in the casino.
“Meron kaming suspetsa. But investigation is still ongoing. We have to have concrete evidence,” he said.
Identities of several fatalities revealed
In a separate press conference, Resorts World Manila released the names of what they said were the 35, not 36 as earlier reported by the police, dead victims.
Stephen Reilly, the hotel’s chief operating officer, said that of the 35, 22 were hotel guests and 13 were hotel employees.
Four hotel guests and two hotel employees have yet to be identified, he said.
The police earlier said the gunman’s motive was robbery, after his backpack full of chips worth millions of pesos, and which he reportedly got from the casino, was recovered by the authorities.
Authorities have ruled out a terrorist attack.