Mob mauls robbery suspect

Authorities arrested a 28-year-old man who was knocked out with a punch by a habal-habal driver and beaten up by a rampaging mob who chased him for allegedly stealing the money of a cellphone-load sidewalk vendor at barangay Lahug yesterday noon.

The suspected robber, Levin Roy Fajardo, a resident of barangay Carreta, was severely beaten with his face a bloody mess and was already unconscious when policemen of the Theft and Robbery Section arrived to arrest him.

TRS policemen, led by Sr. Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes, stopped the people from inflicting more injury to Fajardo, who they later found to have three pending arrest warrants for robbery cases.

Police accounts of yesterday's incident stated that the vendor, Grace Abing, shouted for help as she accused Fajardo of taking her money. Bystanders, who heard Abing's cry for help, immediately responded and chased the escaping Fajardo.

Fajardo quickly boarded a taxi and demanded its driver, Andres Ballejo, to take him away from the place. Ballejo, sensing something wrong, ordered Fajardo to get off the cab and settle whatever problem he had with the angry mob that was already closing in on him.

Out of desperation, Fajardo drew an improvised knife and stabbed the taxi driver several times. Ballejo however managed to elude every thrust of Fajardo's attack. “Pwerte nakong paningkamot og panagang oy, kay pag-isa niya adto iyang kutsilyo nikilab man sa kahait,” Ballejo said.

Fajardo quickly alighted from the taxi and ran to a an area where motorcycles-for-hire, or habal-habal, were parked. He grabbed one of these, owned by Arnel Gabuya, but it fell off his hands to the ground. He then moved on to the next habal-habal but its driver, Ronaldo Carbajal, refused to yield.

The already rattled Fajardo attacked futilely Carbajal with his knife. Carbajal countered with a blow on Fajardo's nape that knocked the latter's out, just in time the chasing mob arrived to take turns in beating him up further. The policemen arrived soon after.

Fajardo, when interviewed at the police headquarters, denied robbing the female vendor, insisting that he just picked up her money that fell to the ground. He later admitted that he was once imprisoned for a robbery case, which he said was a trumped-up charge only, but refused to say how he got out of jail.

The police said they are still waiting for the affidavits of the vendors and the drivers that will be used in filing cases against Fajardo. – Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE