2 dead, 3 hurt, 16 held hostage by jealous husband in Cavite

Two people were killed on Sunday and three others were injured in a two-hour hostage-taking incident inside the SM mall in Dasmarinas City, Cavite.

The hostage-taker, identified as Carlo Marcus Lacdao, 32, died after being shot by policemen.

The other victim was a male mallgoer, identified as Roberto Rosales, 48, from Dasmarinas City, one of 16 hostages herded by Lacdao into a narrow corridor leading to rest rooms on the mall’s ground floor.

The Cavite police corrected its earlier report identifying one Jollabelle Sumalin as a fatality. Sumalin survived but was among those injured together with Rodel Lozano and Michaela Mae Honor, police said.

In a phone interview, Cavite police chief Sr. Supt. Arthur Bisnar said Lacdao had come from Dulag, Leyte, and went straight to the mall at around 12:45 p.m. He was reportedly looking for his wife, Erna, who worked as a janitor assigned to the mall’s restrooms and whom he apparently suspected of having an affair with another man.

Dasmarinas City police chief Rodolfo Hernandez said witnesses saw Lacdao, jobless and jealous, looking into comfort rooms to find his wife. “Tuliro at galit (confused and angry)” was how he was described, Hernandez said.

Police said that when Lacdao could not find his wife, he began threatening mallgoers with a knife. He took 16 people hostage in one narrow corridor leading to male and female restrooms. During negotiations, 11 were released. Lacdao then took hostage another woman, identified as Mylene Balajadia.

“We tried to negotiate [for the release of the hostage] but he would not surrender,” Bisnar said.

Bisnar said the wife, Erna, arrived during the police negotiations but “he (Lacdao) just became even more agitated when he saw her.”

When police realized that one of the hostages had been stabbed dead, they decided to move in.

Police were left with no choice but to shoot the suspect “in the body,” Bisnar said.

Bisnar said investigators were reviewing footage from the mall’s security cameras to find out how the suspect was able to bring a knife into the mall.

SM, in an official statement said: “Based on the information gathered, this started as a domestic problem that was brought to the mall. The local PNP and our security worked together to manage the situation.”