After posting bail, rob suspect who ratted on pals slain in QC

A robbery suspect who had just been released after posting bail was ambushed by motorcycle-riding assailants on his way home in a taxi with his live-in partner Friday afternoon in Quezon City.

Joven Patropez, 25, of Nagcarlan, Laguna province, did not make it alive to Capitol Medical Center after sustaining two gunshot wounds in the head and one in the back.

Police believe that the suspect was killed for giving information to investigators which led to the arrest of three other robbery suspects shortly after the group tried to pull off a job on Jan. 12.

Caught by rookie cop

Supt. Pedro Sanchez of the QCPD’s Masambong police station said Patropez was part of the group who boarded a jeepney on West Avenue in the afternoon of Jan. 12 and managed to steal the cell phone of one of the passengers who turned out to be a rookie policeman.

Shortly after the group got off the vehicle, the young officer, P01 Liberato Antang noticed that the phone in his pocket had gone missing. He tried to chase the group but caught up only with Patropez.

The arrested suspect eventually squealed on his three partners, pointing police to their location, an apartelle on Timog Avenue. Michael de la Cruz, 30; Resty Hopio, 23, and Ehzier Fortuna, 35, later joined Patropez in jail.

Shot thru cab window

Around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Patropez was released from the Masambong station after posting bail and took a taxi with live-in partner Elsie Salinas, according to PO3 Marlon de la Vega.

When the cab stopped on a red light at the intersection of Timog and Panay avenues in Barangay Laging Handa, two men on a motorbike stopped next to the taxi on the driver’s side.

One of them got off the bike and fired shots through the glass window, hitting Patropez who was in the backseat. The assailants, who both wore helmets, sped off and Salinas rushed her partner to the hospital.

Of Petropez’s three cohorts, Hopio had also posted bail while the two others remained in detention.