Quezon cop killed in shootout with robbers

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LUCENA CITY, Philippines – A policeman was killed in a firefight with five suspected robbers – one of them a woman – in Atimonan, Quezon Wednesday afternoon, a police official said.

Senior Supt. Valeriano de Leon, Quezon police chief, identified the fatality as Police Officer 3 Francisco Villania, a member of Atimonan police station assigned in its patrol car unit.

De Leon, quoting spot report from Atimonan station, said that at around 2:50 p.m, the victim and his partner Police Officer 2 Benito Reyes while conducting routine patrol around the municipality responded to a radio message about a robbery in progress in a local convenience store.

When the policemen arrived at the crime scene, the burglars had just escaped aboard a tricycle. The victim and his partner chased and engaged the armed suspects in a shootout in Barangay Angeles along the Maharlika Highway.

In an exchange of gun fires, Villania shot one of the robbers but was also hit in return in different parts of his body. The cop died on the spot, De Leon said.

Two of the bandits commandeered a passing jeepney and managed to escape from the firefight.

The duo, Miguel Mollas Targa and Elmer Encina, were later arrested in a police dragnet laid down by Senior Insp. Marcelino Platino, police chief in nearby Plaridel town.

De Leon said the two other suspects – a woman alias “April” and her gangmate “Bobby”, both residents of Tayabas Town – were able to make good their escape. They are now subjects of police manhunt.

The arrested suspects yielded one Uzi machine gun, one Cal 38 revolver and still undetermined amount of cash.

The policemen also found the get-away tricycle registered under the name of the wounded suspect, Arturo Jurado, who was transferred to the Quezon Medical Center in Lucena City for treatment, De Leon said.