San Juan councilor’s son kills robber

Criminals are apparently going for big targets in the small city, including a politician’s house.

A son of a veteran San Juan City councilor shot dead one of the two men who allegedly tried to rob their house Friday morning, police said.

Three shots from Kelly Peralta, son of incumbent San Juan Councilor Ritchie Peralta, sent the still unidentified suspect falling from the roof, where he had tried to escape after the household was alerted to the burglary.

The slain suspect, described to be 5’2” in height and about 21 years old, was one of the two men who entered the Peraltas’ house on Ibuna Street, Barangay St. Joseph, according to San Juan police chief Senior Superintendent Joselito Daniel.

The shooting took place around 9 a.m., but Daniel said the two suspects may have entered the house much earlier.

“We suspect that they might have been waiting for the residents to leave for work before striking,” the officer said. But a housemaid saw the two men inside the house and screamed, he added.

In the ensuing commotion, Kelly took out a .45-cal. pistol and chased the suspects who by then were trying to flee through a fire escape. Daniel said the gun was licensed to the young Peralta.

“One of them—the one who was later killed—tried to shoot Kelly with a .38-cal. revolver but the gun did not fire. This gave Kelly the chance to shoot,” Daniel said.

Kelly hit the suspect in the shoulder and the back, sending him falling to the ground-floor walkway. The suspect died on the spot, police said.

The second suspect managed to escape.

As of early afternoon Friday, police have yet to take a formal statement from Kelly “but he’s included in our investigation. He has a lawyer and a doctor, by the way.”

San Juan Vice Mayor Francis Zamora, who went to the Peralta residence, said “(the councilor’s) children and wife are still very traumatized. We still cannot speak to them because of that.”

Zamora said the city council would hold a session next week to discuss the peace and order situation in the small city, where three earlier shootings had been reported in just a span of one week.

On July 26, a personal assistant of television host Willie Revillame was robbed and shot in San Juan while waiting for a taxi. Two days earlier, armed men in police uniforms wounded a female cockfight financier and her driver in an ambush.

On July 20, Letran Knights basketball player Franz Dysam was seriously wounded while his girlfriend Joan Sordan was killed when two men on a motorbike fired on their vehicle.