Rookie cop nabs 1 of 2 bus robbers

A rookie policeman single-handedly took on two robbers inside a passenger bus on Edsa, Quezon City, on Tuesday night, leaving one of them wounded.

A passenger, however, was also hit in the arm by a bullet fired by one of the robbers who was aiming for PO1 Frankie San Pedro.

The 24-year-old lawman assigned with the Valenzuela City police was on his way to work when two men armed with knives and a gun boarded the Pamana Transport bus he was riding in at the corner of Edsa and Quezon Avenue at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Quezon City Police District Masambong station commander Supt. Pedro Sanchez said the two robbers—later identified as 18-year-old Mark Charlie Ang and a certain “Gerry Bisaya”—immediately declared a heist.

At knife-point, they took the watch of a passenger and divested another of his bag.

San Pedro, however, immediately drew his service pistol, introduced himself as a policeman and attempted to arrest Gerry Bisaya who also took out a gun.

The policeman fired first but missed his target, hitting Ang who was standing behind his cohort.

Gerry Bisaya also fired his gun but hit a bus passenger, Jonnafe Lazano, instead.

The two robbers then jumped off the bus in a bid to escape but Ang’s gunshot wound slowed him down, leading to his being shot in the thigh by San Pedro who placed him under arrest.

Recovered from Ang was a knife and the bag he took from a passenger.

He and the wounded bus passenger were brought to Quezon City General Hospital where the former was placed under hospital arrest. Jeannette I. Andrade