Cops shoot amok dead in Caloocan

A man who ran amok and fired his gun indiscriminately in Tala, Caloocan City, was shot dead by the police Sunday morning. A nine-member team from the Caloocan City police first asked Saidamen Madayan to surrender peacefully, but he kept on shooting in their direction, forcing the lawmen to return fire until the man was killed on Domato Avenue, Barangay 188, around 9 a.m. Chief Supt. Eric Reyes, director of the Northern Police District, said it was Madayan’s mother who alerted authorities after her pistol-wielding son went berserk and fired shots. It was not immediately known what exactly provoked Madayan and how the jobless man managed to have a Bernardelli Parabellum 9-mm pistol. His relatives, however, told investigators that he had earlier threatened to kill his own family. The Caloocan police chief, Senior Supt. Bartolome Bustamante, maintained that shooting Madayan was their last option and that the responding policemen first met with barangay chair Edris Domato to assess the situation. The area is known for its high incidence of drug peddling and shootings, Bustamante noted. Jodee A. Agoncillo