Superintendent Juanito de Guzman, Meisic (Station 11) commander said that four witnesses have identified the suspect as a certain Ronaldo Naval, alias "Olan," a small-time pickpocket and "bukas kotse" thief who was reportedly recruited by the "Martilyo" gang.
According to De Guzman, Naval, of Estero de Magdalena, in Binondo, sustained a gunshot wound in his left shoulder and was reportedly carrying a caliber .45 pistol when he boarded a pedicab driven by Rennei Burado, 24, shortly after the bloody heist.
Police said the suspect boarded Burado’s pedicab along Juan Luna st. and got off on Masangkay st. in Binondo.
De Guzman said Naval was also identified by Burado’s companion, Edgar Santosidan. Naval was also tagged by a security guard and a saleslady at the Divisoria mall as the one who allegedly lobbed a grenade at the foot of the escalator of the mall’s Juan Luna st. entrance to prevent security guards from pursuing them.
A Taiwanese tourist and a female shopper were killed in the grenade blast while 17 other shoppers sustained shrapnel wounds. They were rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment.
Police later arrived at the scene and engaged the escaping five suspects in a running gunbattle along F. Torres st. An earlier police report said that one of the suspects was wounded in the gunfight.
According to police, the suspects, armed with hammers, and clad in Barong Tagalog, barged into stall DUC33, owned by a certain Lily Co on the second floor of the Divisoria mall in Sto. Cristo, Divisoria, Manila at about 4:25 p.m.
The suspects broke the glass display cases of the store with their hammers and carted away an undetermined amount of assorted jewelry. Then, to escape pursuing security guards, the suspects lobbed a grenade.
Police records showed that the "Martilyo" gang was also behind at least two previous bloody robberies in Sta. Cruz and in Baclaran, Parañaque, three months ago.
Meanwhile, a group of Binondo-based Filipino-Chinese businessmen offered yesterday P100,000 for any information that could lead to the arrest of the five robbery suspects.
Superintendent De Guzman refused to identify the group but confirmed that the businessmen will give P20,000 for the arrest of each of the suspects.
"All the informant needs to do is call us and point to us the suspect. We will then arrest him and the informant can claim his reward intact. The security of the informant is assured," De Guzman said.