Man nabbed in laundry shop robbery

A DAY after a suspected robber from Ozamiz City was shot dead by police, another man from Ozamiz was arrested after he allegedly tried to  rob a laundry shop in barangay Bakilid, Mandaue City.

John Paul Cortes, 32, posed as a customer when he tried to rob Jobelle Bulala, attendant of Pearl Laundry Shop on A.S. Fortuna Street.

Bulala told police that Cortes arrived at the shop around 9 a.m. yesterday.

Bulala said she was attending to the customer when the suspect drew a screw driver and declared a hold-up.

Bulala said the suspect pinned her to the floor and tried to stab her but she was able to evade.

“I was really scared. I thought I was going to die already,” said Bulala in Cebuano.

Bulala was able to find a way to escape from the suspect’s clutches and ran out of the shop.

The woman sought help from bystanders, who then called the police.

Operatives of the City Public Safety Company (CPSC) eventually cornered Cortes and recovered a 10-inch screw driver from his possession.

The incident happened a day after Renante Baldicantos was shot dead by police responding to an armed person alarm in barangay Jagobiao, Mandaue.

Baldicantos allegedly tried to draw a gun that prompted the operatives of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (iDMB) of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) to shoot him.

Baldicantos died on the spot with three gunshot wounds in the body.

The man was the suspect in the killing of loans relation officer Lyriza Amar last month.

Amar had just withdrew money from a bank when she was robbed and killed along a road.

The woman’s father, Noelly, visited the IDMB office after arriving from Bago City, Negros Occidental yesterday.

Noelly thanked the police on the case’s development.

Chief Insp. Micheal Anthony Bastes, chief of IDMB, said Baldicantos was identified by three witness as the one who was seen loitering near the place where Lyriza was waylaid.

Bastes said aside from robberies, the man also involved in carnapping and was also accused of robbing and killing a barangay captain in Tangub City.
The man’s body remained unclaimed at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Mandaue.