Two suspected members of a carnapping group died in an encounter with police early Tuesday in Quezon City.
A shootout ensued between operatives of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) and four alleged carnappers around 12:30 a.m. in Barangay Payatas B, according to police report.
Prior to the incident, police said a concerned citizen on Monday afternoon informed the District Special Operations Unit (DSOU) at the QCPD headquarters, Camp Karingal, about a group of men dismantling an Elf truck parked at the corner of Payatas Road and Group 5 Avenue.
A team from the DSOU immediately went to the location, but found a red truck (RBA-718) abandoned with the front door at the driver’s side already detached. They decided to leave the place for the meantime.
In a follow-up operation after midnight, the DSOU, along with QCPD’s Anti-Carnapping Unit, went back to the location.
There, they saw two men forcibly removing the tires of the truck. They also caught two others engaging in a pot session inside the vehicle.
But as police approached them, the men outside pulled out their respective handguns and started firing at the lawmen, triggering a gunfight.
The armed suspects were killed during the clash while their two cohorts managed to flee.
Police recovered from the suspects a 9-mm handgun and .45-caliber pistol.
Inside the Elf truck, police found various drug paraphernalia and a container with two small sachets of dried marijuana and three sachets of suspected shabu.
The QCPD later found out that the truck was stolen from a construction company in Nueva Ecija.
A certain Imelda de Guzman reported to the police on September 22 that she lost the Elf truck to her four employees in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija.
De Guzman told police that the employees were supposed to deliver supplies in San Antonio but did not return.
The QCPD launched a probe to establish the identities of the suspects and their involvement in previous carnapping and robbery incidents in the city.
Police are hunting down the two other suspects who escaped. (VANNE ELAINE P. TERRAZOLA)