Two suspected robbers were killed in a shootout with the police in Sta. Cruz, Manila, on Tuesday morning.
Senior Police Officer 3 Rowell Robles and his team were patrolling Felix Huertas and Batangas streets around 2:30 a.m. when two men on a black Honda motorcycle opened fire at them. In the exchange of fire, the still unidentified robbers died on the spot, but the police officers were unharmed.
Minutes before the encounter with the police, the pair allegedly snatched the bag of Adoracion de la Cruz, a vendor who was walking along nearby L. Rivera Street. The vendor later identified the two dead men as the same persons who took her pouch containing P8,000 and a cell phone at gunpoint.
On Sunday, Lyndon Pine, a 27-year-old call center agent, was shot dead in the same area by men riding in tandem when he refused to give up his bag. A witness, Joel Espino, recognized the two suspects as the persons who shot Pine several times in different parts of the body.—Maricar B. Brizuela