Man tagged in deaths of police informants shot dead in QC
MANILA, Philippines — A man wanted for the deaths of police tipsters was killed in an encounter with lawmen on Sunday afternoon in Quezon City after he gunned down another informant earlier in the day.
Mark Lawrence Escultor, alias Wee, 27, was slain while shooting it out with policemen out to arrest him for a murder he committed earlier that day.
The suspect was wanted for a string of killings of civilians serving as police informants.
“His victims are mostly police assets for drug cases. It is likely that he himself is involved in drugs,” said Chief Superintendent Richard Albano, Quezon City Police District director.
According to Inspector Elmer Monsalve, homicide section head, Escultor was responsible for the deaths of Senior Police Officer 1 Ivon Atilano during a follow-up operation in April 2012, and Vicente Anthony Andreza, a tipster, in December 2012.
Police are hunting down the suspect’s cohorts, said to be more than three.
Escultor, a resident of Barangay (village) UP Campus, was killed at around 2:50 p.m. Sunday, along Maginhawa Street in Barangay UP Village.
Lawmen from the Anonas police station engaged the suspect in a firefight while trying to arrest him for shooting dead Danny Panaligan, 27, himself a police asset.
Panaligan, a resident of Barangay Krus na Ligas, was gunned down at around 12:30 a.m. Sunday in front of a store in his neighborhood by a man later identified to be Escultor.
Later that afternoon, policemen spotted him Escultor along Maginhawa Street.
Escultor, who was then aboard a motorcycle, sensed the police officers trailing him and suddenly fired shots at them.
In his haste to flee, he hit a parked sports utility vehicle, causing him to fall to the ground.
Police Officer 3 Erickson Isidro, case investigator, said the policemen told Escultor not to move but the suspect fired his caliber .38 revolver again, triggering a firefight.
The suspect was rushed to the East Avenue Medical Center where he later died of several gunshot wounds.
