Makati cops kill trio linked to robberies

Jayson Brondial, one of the three slain suspects, in a social media photo obtained by the Makati police.

The Makati City police on Wednesday killed three men suspected to be behind the recent spate of robbery-holdup incidents in the city.

An operation conducted around 1 a.m. in Barangay San Antonio ended in a “shootout” that killed Jayson Brondial, Donald Bacsal, and Ernesto Fajardo.

Senior Insp. Ronald Saquilayan, chief of the Makati police investigation section, said the “neutralization” of the trio brought “most, if not all, robbery incidents in Makati to a close.”

An official report on the incident said intelligence and tactical motorcycle teams encountered the suspects along Chino Roces Avenue near the corner of Vito Cruz Extension, shortly after the trio robbed commuters at a bus stop near the Edsa-Gil Puyat area.

The officer on the case, PO3 Ronaldo Villaranda, said the suspects were then riding together on a black motorbike with no license plate. Brondial and Bascal were the first to be shot, while Fajardo initially managed to run for about a hundred meters.

Fajardo was eventually gunned down after a failed attempt to hold a pedestrian hostage, Villaranda said.

But an eyewitness to Fajardo’s shooting on Kamagong Street told the Inquirer that the suspect was already on his knees, begging an officer in a black shirt to spare his life, but he was still shot.

The witness said he then saw the officer point a flashlight on the fallen Fajardo, apparently checking if he was still alive. A patrol vehicle arrived a few minutes later to pick up the body.

The Makati police said they recovered from the slain suspects a loaded 9-mm Armscor pistol  (serial no. 1071824), their motorcycle, and nine cell phones that they allegedly stole.