Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Lawyer from Philippines shot dead in Philly while on vacation with his mother

John Albert Laylo was a passenger with his mother in an Uber, traveling south on 38th Street at Spruce, around 4:10 a.m. Saturday when multiple shots were fired at them, hitting him in the head.

Chalk circles mark where the evidence was found on southbound 38th Street at Spruce Street in Philadelphia on Sunday. At that location around 4 a.m. on Saturday, John Albert Laylo, an attorney from the Philippines, was killed when a person opened fire on the Uber he was riding in with his mother.
Chalk circles mark where the evidence was found on southbound 38th Street at Spruce Street in Philadelphia on Sunday. At that location around 4 a.m. on Saturday, John Albert Laylo, an attorney from the Philippines, was killed when a person opened fire on the Uber he was riding in with his mother.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer
    by Diane Mastrull
    Updated 
    Published 

A government lawyer from the Philippines who was vacationing in Philadelphia with his mother died Sunday morning after being shot in the head while riding in an Uber on his way to the airport, according to police and social media posts from family.

John Albert Laylo, 35, was a passenger with his mother in a black Nissan Altima, traveling south on 38th Street at Spruce Street, around 4:10 a.m. Saturday when a vehicle came up from behind “and started to fire several rounds” into the Altima, police said. The vehicle, possibly a black Maxima, then pulled up along the driver’s side and fired more shots before fleeing, police said.

Laylo was shot in the back of the head. University of Pennsylvania police took him to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:33 a.m. Sunday, Philadelphia police said. His mother was not seriously injured.

With her son in critical condition at Penn Presbyterian, Leah Bustamante Laylo posted on Facebook that in recent weeks she and John Laylo were in the United States on “a very well-deserved vacation.”

She went on to say that shortly after 4 a.m. Saturday “something happened! We are the victim of random shooting here in Philadelphia! My son ... was badly hit in his head! I got 3 shrapnel wounds, I’m okay and holding on.”

Hours after his death, she again took to Facebook:

“My son has a lot of dreams a lot of plans, hopes and everything! He’s gone now. I can’t explain the pain the heaviness I have in my heart. It took me hours to post this because still I can’t believe this happened!”

According to the website for Central European University, where Laylo studied for a master’s degree in law, he was a member of the Philippine Bar and worked at the Senate of the Philippines, where he drafted legislation, and at a full-service law firm, where he was an associate partner. His expertise included political and commercial law.

Philadelphia police said no arrests had been made and an investigation continued. Detectives are currently attempting to retrieve surveillance video in order to identify the suspect vehicle, police said in a statement Sunday night.