Police are hunting down the car driver who shot and killed a 27-year-old IT professional at the peak of road altercation in Quezon City last Saturday.
Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, in a press conference yesterday presented the cartographic sketch of the gunman who shot dead Anthony Mendoza at the corner of D. Tuazon and Quezon Avenues in Barangay Doña Josefa, Quezon City last February 25.
Considered as “armed and dangerous,” the suspect was described as between 35-45 years old, white-complexioned, with black straight hair, and with Tagalog accent.
The QCPD chief said it was Michael, Anthony’s brother, who gave the description of the suspect.
Michael was backriding Anthony’s motorcycle when they had an altercation with the unidentified car driver at around 3:15 p.m.
Michael said the suspect was onboard a white Toyota Land Cruiser with plated number AHA-3454. The same car was also caught on a closed-circuit television footage along D. Tuazon Avenue before the shooting incident happened.
Eleazar said the two vehicles almost hit each other as the motorcycle cut the white Land Cruiser which tried to beat the red light at the intersection.
The driver of the white car confronted the Mendoza siblings, resulting in the exchange of cuss words.
At the height of altercation, the suspect pulled out a gun and shot Anthony in the back of the head, the bullet also pierced the left side of his face. He died on the spot.
“Ito’y walang kakwenta-kwentang bagay na dahil sa init ng ulo ay nagawa ng suspect na barilin ang biktima,” he said, expressing his dismay.
While Michael recognized the suspect’s face, the car’s plate number remains a puzzle as police still verify its registration with the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
Eleazar said they discovered from the agency that the number, which two witnesses had also given them, was registered to a Toyota Avanza and not a Land Cruiser.
He refused to divulge the details of the car’s ownership as operatives have yet to validate its connection to the Land Cruiser.
“I am personally coordinating with LTO Regional Director Clarence Guinto…Of course, we also wanted to know if this is really the plate number. We will confirm if this was correct,” he said.
Enile Mendoza, Michael’s wife, admitted that her husband was not able to get a clear look of the suspect’s plate number and only recalled “AHA.”
“He was able to identify the letters, however he wasn’t able to identify the numbers…Ang naging guide lang namin kaya kami nag-lead sa AHA-3454 is because somebody approached them…stating na ito yung plaka nung bumaril sa tao,” she said.
Enile said it was Anthony who argued with the suspect while Michael was pacifying the two.
Anthony, an employee of Hewlett Packard, left a fiance identified as Marianne Reginaldo, 27, whom he set to marry in 2018.
Reginaldo, who flew from Singapore, expressed her grief over the death of her boyfriend for 13 years.
“I’m still not able to accept what happened to him. We have so many plans…Everything is ready, we are just waiting for 2018,” she said.
Anthony, she said, was also supposed to visit her in Singapore this March.
Reginaldo called for justice for her fiance’s death and appealed to the gunman to surrender to police.
(VANNE ELAINE P. TERRAZOLA)