Guest kills host’s nephew, hurts 3

A teenager was killed and his three relatives were injured after their guest allegedly went berserk and attempted to kill everyone in the house at dawn yesterday in Valenzuela City, police said.

Authorities identified the fatality as Richard Guitierrez, 18, of 4076 Sara St. , De Castro Subdivision, Barangay Mapulang Lupa.

Injured were Guitierrez’s uncle, Juanito Cobardo, 48, an employee of the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC), Cobardo’s wife Arlene, 39, and their son, Junar, 18.

According to Inspector Salvador de la Cruz, chief of the Valenzuela City police Station Investigation Branch (SIB), suspect Melvin Agum, 35, was a guest in the Cobardos’ residence.

De la Cruz said Gutierrez succumbed to a single stab wound in the chest and died before reaching the Valenzuela General Hospital. The Cobardos, meanwhile, sustained slash wounds in different parts of the body as they parried Agum’s attacks. The suspect himself was brought to the hospital after he was mauled by responding neighbors. The Corbados and Agum, who police suspect is mentally unstable, are now recuperating in the hospital, De la Cruz said.

Reports showed that the incident happened at around 3:45 a.m. inside the Cobardos’ residence.

De la Cruz said Agum shared a room with Guitierrez and allegedly stabbed the victim with a 10-inch stainless kitchen knife while he slept. The suspect attacked Junar next, but the young man fought him off. – Nikko Dizon and Pete Laude