A fourth suspected robber managed to escape, police said.
The residence is owned by one Norjahan Moorjani, who is reportedly engaged in a money-lending and check-encashing business.
Superintendent Danildo Tumanda, chief of the Cagayan de Oro City Public Safety Company, said one of the suspected robbers managed to enter the house when someone on Moorjani’s staff opened the gate. The incident was recorded by a CCTV camera positioned by the gate.
“It was a good thing that the staff had presence of mind… she immediately shouted for help so the other people in the house were alerted,” he said.
Tumanda said that the alleged robber then ran out of the house, apparently realizing that the planned robbery had been thwarted.
It was then that neighbors heard a series of gunshots.
“We thought one of our neighbors had lighted firecrackers,” said Micah Curilan, whose house is located right across where two of the alleged robbers were gunned down.
Curilan said she peered out her window to look at the “fireworks display” but wondered why no sparks were shooting into the sky.
“I could see the sparks coming from the ground then I saw two men pinned to a concrete wall,” she said.
Realizing that what she heard were gunshots, she immediately ducked on the floor.
According to the initial investigation of the police, a man was “waiting” outside the Moorjani residence. He was apparently gunned down when he tried to flee the scene. The other two were gunned down a few meters away.
Two of the alleged robbers died on the spot. The third succumbed to gunshot wounds at the Maria Reyna Hospital.
Police said the empty bullet shells recovered from the scene were from an M16 rifle and 9-mm pistol.
The police said that the motorcycles the alleged robbers used did not have license plates.
Tumanda said that the plan of the men to rob the Moorjani residence was clear. He said police were still trying to determine the motive of the gunmen who took out three of the four robbers.