Suspect in traffic aide’s slay in QC arrested in Cagayan

AFTER three days of nonstop hot pursuit operations, the man accused of shooting and killing a barangay traffic enforcer in Quezon City has finally been arrested.

A 24-man team from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) tracked down Geronimo Iquin Jr. to a hotel room in Aparri, Cagayan, on Monday night, QCPD chief Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar told reporters on Tuesday.

The 46-year-old suspect fled after he shot and killed barangay traffic enforcer Ernesto Paras Jr. on La Salle corner Ermin Garcia Streets in Barangay Silangan, Cubao, Quezon City, around 11 a.m. on Friday over a parking violation.

Intelligence reports said Iquin first went to his cousin’s house in Barangay San Roque, Antipolo City, more than an hour after the shooting. He abandoned the black Honda Civic he was driving, went to Bulacan where he stayed the night before traveling by bus to Santiago, Isabela, on Saturday.

He transferred to his hometown in Tuguegarao City on Sunday, managing to evade the police which were conducting house-to-house searches in the area near his house.

Iquin then decided to travel up north to Aparri where the Quezon City police, with the help of local policemen, arrested him at the Dream Land Hotel.

Based on the footage taken by a closed-circuit television near the crime scene, the victim accosted the suspect for violating the no-double parking rule. The suspect, however, shot him repeatedly and ran over the victim’s body with his vehicle before fleeing.