Cop shot during QC anti-vendors drive

An operative of the Central Police District was shot dead by a still unidentified gunman during an operation to drive out illegal sidewalk vendors in Commonwealth, Quezon City yesterday early morning.

The shooting happened around 5:35 a.m. in front of the Manggahan Flea Market along Commonwealth Avenue where two civilians were also injured.

Senior Inspector Rudy Jaraza, Criminal Investigation Unit homicide section chief, said the killer of SPO1 Alejandro Beleno, Jr., detailed at Batasan Hills Police Station-Litex detachment, could be one of the illegal vendors belonging to a member of a Muslim community in Quezon City.

Jaraza said the gunman could also be responsible for the death of PO2 Alberto Mallapre who was shot dead on Sept. 22 around 11:30 p.m. while buying fruits in the flea market.

Investigators identified the suspect in the killing of Mallapre as a certain "Sonny Boy Muslim," said to be a vendor at the Manggahan market. He is now the subject of a police manhunt.

According to Jaraza, he had sent the slugs used in Mallapre’s killing to the Philippine National Police crime laboratory for comparison with the ones used on Beleno.

Police investigators also said they believed the illegal vendors were protecting the suspect as most of them refused to testify during the investigation of Beleno’s shooting.

It was learned that several complaints had been filed by the vendors against Beleno before the Central Police District.

Inspector Arnold Santiago, Litex police detachment chief and Beleno’s immediate superior, took the victim to the Fairview General Hospital after the shooting.

Beleno was later transferred to the Far Eastern Hospital in Fairview but died while being treated due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Also injured in the incident were Arnel Vertuz, 33, truckhelper, of Kaunlaran street in Batasan Hills, and Marife Briones, vendor, of Luzon Avenue, Culiat, both in Quezon City. Vertuz sustained a gunshot wound in the right leg while Briones sustained a gunshot wound in the right arm.

SPO1 Rodrigo Barrameda, officer-on-case, said Beleno, Vertuz, Ronnie Sadsad, and Rino Corpin were conducting an operation to drive away illegal vendors from the flea market.

The victim was giving instructions to his colleagues to arrest the illegal vendors along the street when the gunman approached and shot him.