MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City policemen killed early Sunday morning in an alleged shootout two suspected motorcycle thieves who allegedly snatched a motorbike off a hotel employee.
Operatives of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Novaliches station, which was following up on the stolen motorcycle, chanced upon the suspects who allegedly shot it out with the policemen rather than surrender.
One of the slain men was described to be between 25 and 30 years old, five-foot-seven inches tall, fair-skinned, and of heavy build, clad in a black shorts worn over denim pants. He sported tattooed drawings of a girl on his right arm and images of a man and a woman on his back, and had the name “Lupe” on his left arm.
The other man was between 30 and 35 years old, five-foot-two inches tall, fair-skinned and slim, clad in a white shirt worn over denim pants. He had a tattoo of four axes and a scar on his back.
Police Officer 2 Roldan Cornejo, of the Quezon City Police District Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU), said that the shooting happened at around 1:30 a.m., Sunday, along Samonte Street, Barangay (village) Nagkaisang Nayon in Novaliches.
According to Cornejo, several minutes before the shooting, 24-year-old hotel employee Bayani Marasigan was on his way home to Valenzuela City when he decided to stop for a snack at a store along Quirino Highway in Barangay Sauyo.
One of two men allegedly brandished a gun at Marasigan and rode away on his Honda Wave motorcycle (4746-WO). The hotel employee immediately reported the robbery to the QCPD Novaliches station, prompting its operatives to do follow-up and pursuit operations.
The patrolling Novaliches policemen on mobile unit QC-130, led by Senior Insp. Roderick Medrano, spotted the stolen motorcycle with two men on it along Samonte Street.
But when the policemen ordered the men on the motorcycle to stop, they were allegedly fired at, prompting them to retaliate and neutralize the suspected motorbike thieves.
Recovered from the slain men were a .38 caliber revolver and the stolen motorcycle. Marasigan later identified the two men as the same persons who allegedly took his motorcycle from him.
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