Cop shoots hostage taker, saves boy

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — A policeman saved a 9-year-old boy who was taken hostage by a man inside a crowded fastfood restaurant in Angeles City on Tuesday night.

Senior Inspector Dante Cabungcal shot the hostage-taker, Jonhon Roncales, in the shoulder when the latter began hitting the boy with a metal fork after negotiations initiated by the police failed.

Roncales, a native of Samar, grabbed the boy at about 9:30 p.m. as the child was eating with his mother inside Chowking in Barangay Balibago, north of this Pampanga capital.

Roncales made no demands as he sat gripping the wailing boy, a native of Barangay Dau in nearby Mabalacat City.

Cabungcal walked in front of the suspect and the victim and, at the right moment, shot the hostage taker. The lawman then pulled the boy to safety.

Roncales died while being brought to a hospital.

Chief Supt. Rudy Lacadin, Central Luzon police director, said he instructed the team leader to “neutralize the hostage taker at the first opportunity, especially if the victim’s safety was at stake.”

Cabungcal, Lacadin said, “did what I exactly wanted him to do.”

“For his bravery, I will personally give the reward and award due him,” the official said.