3 suspects shot dead in gas station, restaurant heists

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) policemen killed three suspected robbers who were fleeing with their loot from a fastfood store and a gasoline station before dawn yesterday.

The three men, one of whom was identified as Ryan Gregorio, died of gunshot wounds after they allegedly shot it out with policemen of the QCPD-District Police Intelligence Operating Unit (DPIOU) along Tandang Sora Avenue near the corner of Cenacle Drive in Barangay Culiat.

QCPD-DPIOU chief Superintendent Alex Sintin said the patrolling policemen saw the suspects just as they finished robbing a branch of fastfood restaurant Goodah and Seaoil gasoline station at around 3:30 a.m.

Recovered from the suspects were two .38 caliber revolvers, P3,690 from the cashiers of both shops and two cellular phones owned by the shops’ employees.

The police believe the slain suspects might have cohorts who were able to escape at the height of the gunbattle, said QCPD Intelligence Division chief Superintendent Bernabe Balba.

“We believe their cohorts were waiting in a vehicle, probably a motorcycle, at the foot of a bridge (near the crime scene),” Balba told The STAR in an interview.

Richard Eguia, a cook at the fastfood restaurant, said he saw two of the suspects loitering outside the shop before the incident. The two men robbed the restaurant employees then forced Eguia to lead them to the adjacent gas station.

After getting their loot, the two men and a companion who acted as a lookout ran towards a waiting getaway vehicle. It was at this juncture that they were spotted by patrolling policemen.

After a robbery at a gas station and a break-in at a pawnshop over the weekend, the QCPD stepped up its “detective patrol” operations, specifically monitoring 24-hour shops, Balba said. – Reinir Padua