Police hunting rob suspect who killed trainee

CEBU, Philippines - The police in Talisay City are still looking for the robbery suspect who shot dead one of its Field Training Police member.

PO1 William Mangubat Jr., 26, of Batch Genesis 2009, while responding to a robbery alarm, was shot by an unidentified robbery suspect last Friday afternoon in sitio Mananga 2, barangay Tabunok.

He succumbed to a gunshot wound on the head and right shoulder.

Based on the investigation conducted by the homicide section, the man who shot Mangubat was one of the two suspects of a robbery which just transpired minutes prior to the shooting.

One of the robbery victims named “Des,” a resident of Deca Homes subdivision in barangay Dumlog, Talisay City, told police that the two suspects hailed the PUJ they were riding somewhere in the highway of barangay Bulacao.

The PUJ was traveling from Cebu City towards Naga City in the south.

Des said they were in Mananga 2 when one of the robbers pointed a gun at her and declared z holdup, and grabbed her handbag.

Inside her bag were P4,000, an ATM card, and an N70 mobile phone worth P7,000.

When the two robbers alighted from the PUJ, Des called for police assistance.

Incidentally, Mangubat along with his buddy PO1 Vhenjie Pantuan, also an FTP, were posted in that crime-prone area of Tabunok.

The police went after the suspects, and according to Des, they heard gunshots later on.

The suspect with a gun, reportedly a .45 caliber pistol, reportedly shot Mangubat causing his death on the spot.

Senior Inspector Errol Francis Deveyra, officer-in-charge (OIC) of the Talisay City Police Station, said Mangubat at that time, being an FTP, was unarmed, yet still pursued the suspects despite one of them being armed.

He said as a policy, FTPs are supposed to report to the station if they receive an alarm for back-up. But Deveyra said the two might have missed that part, and tried to apprehend the suspects themselves.

Meanwhile, the suspects are still being hunted by the police as of press time. (FREEMAN)