Navotas trader loses Crosswind to carjackers

A businessman lost his AUV to four armed men before dawn last Saturday in the coastal town of Navotas, police said yesterday.

Reports reaching the office of Northern Police District (NPD) director Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil identified the victim as 39-year-old Antonio Belgica.

The Navotas police Station Investigation Division (SID) said that at around 4:30 a.m., Belgica arrived at his house in Barangay North Bay Boulevard North (NBBN), Navotas on board his gold Isuzu Crosswind (XSS-457).

He was about to alight from the vehicle when four men, armed with short firearms, forced the victim back inside his vehicle.

One of the suspects took the wheel from Belgica while the three others joined the businessman inside.

The carjackers brought the victim and his vehicle somewhere in Fairview, Quezon City. There, they transferred the victim to another vehicle.

The suspects again drove off with Belgica toward Barangay Dolores in Malolos, Bulacan where they dumped him unharmed on the side of the road.

The Navotas SID, under Chief Inspector Michael Angelo Zunega, said yesterday the case was still under investigation.

1 dead, 1 hurt in failed rob try

A 19-year-old boy was killed while an Army reservist was wounded after four gunmen fired at them in a failed robbery attempt last Saturday afternoon in Valenzuela City.

SPO1 Richie Garcia, officer-on-case, identified the fatality as Dranreb Zaldivar of Natividad Town Homes, Punturin, Valenzuela City.

Zaldivar was taken to the Valenzuela General Hospital for treatment, but succumbed to a gunshot wound in the back.

Corporal Romel Gonzales, 37, of Heritage Homes, Loma de Gato, Marilao, Bulacan, was hit on the shoulder and is now under observation at the same medical facility.

The suspects escaped after the shooting and remain at large.

Records showed the victims, together with six other companions on board a Toyota Hi-Ace (RCS-379) driven by Gonzales, had just fetched Jocelyn Zaldivar, a returning OFW from Japan, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Parañaque City, when the suspects struck at around 5:45 p.m. at the entrance gate of the Natividad Town Homes at Sta. Lucia Village in Barangay Punturin.

One of the suspects allegedly blocked the car and shot the victims with a caliber .45 pistol.

Gonzales, however, managed to return fire at the suspects who panicked and fled on board another vehicle even as the wounded Army reserve officer drove the car away to safety.

Responding policemen from PCP- 7 responded and brought the victims to the nearest hospital. — With Jerry Botial