3 dead in Caloocan shooting rampage

Police shot dead an eatery helper after he ran amuck and killed his employer and a security guard before dawn yesterday in Caloocan City.

Danilo Loreyna, 19, who works in an eatery of the MNM Building at the corner of Maximo and Benin Streets, Caloocan City, succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds in the body while being treated at the Manila Central University (MCU) Hospital.

Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, chief of the Caloocan City police intelligence and investigation division, said that at about 1:15 a.m. Loreyna attack and killed his employer, one Wilfredo Lugod, 30, a few minutes after he closed down his eatery.

The suspect, just recently hired by Lugod as a helper, stabbed his employer with a knife several times in the body. Not contended, he shot Lugod twice in the body to finish him off.

The victim’s brother, Roger Lugod, who was at a nearby barangay hall, rushed to the eatery to investigate the gunshots he heard.

He was fired upon by the fleeing suspect but escaped unhurt.

Roger rushed his brother to the MCU Hospital for treatment, but the victim was pronounced dead on arrival by an attending physician.

Responding policemen, led by PO2 Edwin Carandang and PO2 Gerry Gamueda, pursued the escaping suspect to the nearby Victory Liner Compound, where Loreyna shot and killed Renato Vallega, the detailed guard of the bus terminal. Vallega sustained a gunshot wound in the head.

Policemen cornered Loreyna while hiding under a passenger jeepney at the corner of Samson Road and Dagohoy Street and persuaded him to surrender, but instead the suspect fired upon the policemen, Borromeo said.

The cops retaliated, hitting the suspect in various parts of the body. The police rushed him to the hospital where he died while undergoing treatment.

Police seized from the suspect a caliber .38 revolver loaded with five spent shells and a dud bullet in its cylinder.

Also recovered from the suspect was the bloodied fan knife used to stab his employer.

Borromeo said they are still trying to find out Loreyna’s motive in killing Lugod as they were the only people inside the eatery when the incident happened.

Witnesses, however, said Loreyna harbored a grudge against his employer for scolding him often. – With Jerry Botial