Three suspected carnappers were killed in a shootout with police shortly after he robbed a taxi driver of his day’s earnings and took his cab in Quezon City early Monday morning.
Police, however, said they have yet to establish the identities of four suspects who all died on the spot in the encounter with members of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) on Batasan-San Mateo Road in Barangay Batasan, Quezon City, at 2:10 a.m.
Police Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, QCPD director, said the shootout happened after the suspects held up Danilo Saring, 59, a resident of Sabac St., Caloocan City.
Saring told police that he was driving his taxicab when the four suspects boarded his taxi at Philcoa and told him to convey them to Don Antonio Heights, at around 1:30 a.m. Monday.
While on approaching Fairview, one of the suspects asked the driver to pull over on a dimly lit area to urinate.
Shortly after, the suspect beside the driver seat pulled out a handgun and declared a hold-up. He ordered the victim to undress before he hogtied him with a packaging tape.
The victim, according to Eleazar, overheard the suspects arguing over the buyer of the taxi.
After taking the victim’s earnings worth P2,470, the suspects dumped the half-naked Saring near a bank at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue ang Camaro St..
At around 1:45 a.m., members of the QCPD’s District Special Operations Unit (DSOU) under Police Supt. Rogarth B. Campo, who were conducting anti-criminality operations along Commonwealth Avenue, spotted the victim trying to free himself.
The police immediately conducted a follow-up operations against the suspects after hearing the victim’s story.
The suspects were cornered on Batasan-San Mateo Road but, instead of surrendering peacefully, they engaged the operatives in a shootout. Three of the suspects died while the other one managed to flee.
Police recovered from the suspects an STI .45-caliber pistol, a 9mm sub-machine gun, Night Hawk Super 38 caliber, a sachet of shabu, the wallet of the victim and the stolen taxi.
Eleazar said a follow-up operation is being conducted to arrest the fourth suspect. (FRANCIS T. WAKEFIELD)