22-year-old fugitive car theft suspect dies in shootout with cops

MANILA, Philippines — It’s the end of the line for a suspected car thief who escaped from police custody in Caloocan City in 2013.

Early Tuesday, fugitive Berlin del Rosario, 22, of Barangay 186, Caloocan, died in a shootout with law enforcers out to serve him warrants of arrest.

Del Rosario is one of two accused car thieves who sawed off window grills to escape from a Caloocan police station in 2013, said Supt. Danilo Macerin, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region (CIDG-NCR).

Del Rosario was also the subject of two standing arrest warrants for carnapping with physical injuries — one issued by a Caloocan Regional Trial Court Branch 125 judge Dionisio C. Sison, and another pending in the city prosecutor’s office, the Northern Police District (NPD) said in a press statement on Tuesday.

The CIDG-NCR (CIDG-NCR) coordinated with the Caloocan city police to serve the arrest warrants at Sto. Niño St., Administration Site, Barangay 186, Tala, Caloocan at around 2:30 a.m. But “Del Rosario chose to shoot it out with the law enforcers that resulted in his death,” Macerin said, in a statement after the operation.

Also arrested during the operation were three men believed to be Del Rosario’s accomplices, namely Benjielito Dimaano Santos, 38; Ronnie Caberto Santos, 48; and Rollie Junio Magano, 51, the NPD reported.

Confiscated from them were a grenade, a .38 revolver, a homemade caliber-22 semi-automatic machine pistol, an improvised pen gun, and assorted ammunition.

Also recovered were four motorcycles, two of which were “cannibalized” or dismantled, and motorcycle parts “suspected to be stolen or used by the suspects in criminal activities,” the NPD statement read.

The motorcycles are being subjected to a “verification process.” Car theft complaints would be filed against the arrested suspects if they were found to have been stolen, Macerin said.

In the meantime, complaints for illegal possession of firearms and explosives were being readied against them, as of Tueday, he added.  SFM