Caloocan’s hero cop dies

A night duty cop, who engaged two motorcycle-riding members of a robbery gang in a shootout in Caloocan City, succumbed to gunshot wounds after four days in the hospital, police said yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Leo Garra, city police chief, said he has recommended the posthumous promotion to the next rank of the late PO1 Joel Gonzales, 31, of the Almar Police Detachment, and a resident of 7 Vista Verde North Subdivision, Caloocan City.

Gonzales died at around 1:30 a.m. yesterday at the FEU Hospital in Fairview, Quezon City.

Chief Inspector Crisencio Galvez, intelligence chief, said the young officer, although badly wounded, managed to shoot dead Conrado Marcelo Jr., reportedly a son of Kwatog Gang leader Conrado Sr., who remains at large.

Police said the gang operates in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces, particularly Bulacan and Tarlac in the north and the Calabarzon in the south.

The group is primarily engaged in big and diversified criminal activities including attacks on banks and pawnshops, big-time extortion, gun-for-hire, and kidnap-for-ransom.

Reports showed Gonzales was on his way to his post at around 7:30 p.m., when he chanced upon Marcelo and a male companion, riding tandem on a motorcycle, acting suspiciously inside the Vista Verde Subdivision where he lived.

Experience warned the cop that the suspects were armed and sought the help of Alejandro Bayangos, 42, the security supervisor at the subdivision, as backup.

But even before Gonzales could identify himself, Marcelo, who rode at the back of the motorcycle, pumped several bullets at the full-uniformed Gonzales.

Six bullets ripped through the cop’s abdomen sending him reeling to the ground. Gravely wounded, the cop still managed to fire at Marcelo, who fell dead from the cop’s 9 mm Beretta.

Marcelo’s unidentified male companion sped away as the former fell from the motorcycle.

Inspector Jessie de la Rosa of the Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) recovered a 9 mm Beretta with two live rounds in the magazine, two spent shells and a deformed slug at the crime scene.