Drug suspects ‘open fire’ at QC cops, 5 killed

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ARNOLD ALMACEN

Anti-narcotics police in Quezon City shot and killed five drug suspects before dawn Monday in what authorities said was an encounter.

Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, director of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), said the suspects shot at his men which prompted the officers to fire back.

The incident took place in a place called “Kampo” in Barangay Payatas at about 12:20 a.m.
All the slain remained unidentified but one of their companions, who was wounded, was identified as Jusrel Harold Arevalo. He was taken to the East Avenue Medical Center, also in Quezon City, where he was treated for a gunshot wound.

The anti-illegal drugs officers from the QCPD Station 6 in Barangay Batasan said the suspects fired first.

Police said they seized a caliber-38 revolver, three caliber-45 pistols and two plastic sachets of suspected shabu from the suspects.

Eleazar said that prior to the encounter, his men conducted a buy-bust operation in Payatas after residents reported of drugs being sold in their community. The operation reportedly confirmed the “proliferation of drugs in the area.”/rga