Police in Tarlac shot dead five members of Cordillera-based group of armed carjackers on Sunday dawn in Gerona town.
Superintendent Ponciano Zafra, Chief of Police of Gerona Municipal, said investigation is underway to dig deeper into the identities and affiliation of the five suspects, four men and a woman who are all believed to be natives of Kalinga based on initial findings of physical examination of the crime scene.
Zafra said they were able to establish that the suspects came all the way from Baguio City where they carjacked a Toyota Innov (NDO-933) driven by Roldan Ymson, 67, on Saturday midnight and fled south on board the car, taking Ymson hostage.
The Baguio City Police received the report of the carjacking at 1:30 a.m. and immediately sent out an alarm to other PNP units.
Zafra said they received reports of suspicious-looking men who forced open the gates of a farm in Barangay Danzo, Gerona.
He said a patrol team in adjacent barangay was sent to Barangay Danzo to verify the report, but instead of yielding, the suspects opened fire at the police triggering a brief exchange of gunfire.
Recovered from the suspects were two cal.45 pistols, two cal.38 revolvers and an MK-2 fragmentation grenade that one of the suspects tried to detonate.
At 8 a.m. on Sunday, local police recovered the body of Ymson in Pozzorubio, Pangasinan.