Guard killed, 3 hurt in mall rob

A 23-year-old security guard was shot dead while three other persons were wounded, including a mother and child, in another robbery in a jewelry store perpetrated by the "Martilyo Gang" in a Caloocan City mall yesterday afternoon.

Station Intelligence and Investigation Division (SIID) chief Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo said Reden Beltran, 23, security guard of the Seiko Jewel Square on the third floor of the Gotesco Grand Central Mall, of 169 GSIS Hills Subdivision, Talipapa, Novaliches, succumbed to a head wound at the Manila Central University (MCU) Hospital along EDSA. Wounded by stray bullets, Borromeo said, were Marinette Escobar, 29, of 16 M. Hizon Street, 10th Avenue, Caloocan City and her 3-year old daughter Maria Louienge, and Josie del Prado, of Baclaran, Parañaque, who were shopping at the mall.

Police arrested three suspects, positively identified by the store’s salesladies. Arrested were Moises Francisco, 33, of Katamanan Street, Tondo, Manila; Armando Ababon, 25, stay-in repairman at the Our Lady of Grace Parish Church, and Ireneo Tusoy, 25 of Gozon Compound, Tonsuya Malabon City. Francisco was collared by mall guards as he acted suspiciously, posing as an innocent customer and later trying to change his clothes in the lobby. Ababon was caught by alert policemen, who cordoned off the area immediately after the attack, loitering near the fire exit on the third floor and could not explain his presence there. Tusoy was nabbed sometime later.

Probers said at least four suspects began their attack at around 5:15 p.m. by throwing two grenades, one near the LRT North Terminal exit and another near the escalators on the third floor, which caused a stampede among shoppers as two of the suspects smashed the glass display cases of the store. Fortunately, the grenades, even with their pins removed, failed to explode.

Bomb disposal experts of the local Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team safely set off the explosives in place as they were hazards to life and limb if moved.

Saleslady Rosalle Garcia told probers that as the panicked crowd rushed in from the LRT and the escalators on the third floor, two of the suspects smashed their display cases and scooped the jewelry into a bag.

Watch technician Wilfredo Mata said Beltran fired at one of the suspects but three other suspects were behind him and fatally shot him.

Garcia told probers, that prior to the robbery, she had warned Beltran about Francisco whom she noticed had been loitering almost everyday in front of the store.

At presstime, suspect Francisco, after interrogation, admitted participation in the heist and is being used by police in a follow up operation to trace his other cohorts.

Meanwhile, a 30-year-old businessman was killed while two of his neighbors were critically injured after three armed men sprayed them with bullets in a festering family feud last Friday night in Caloocan City.

Declared dead at 10 p.m. Friday night by attending physician Wilhelmina Imperial while being treated for multiple gunshot wounds at the Manila Central University (MCU) Hospital was Conrado Antonio y Fariñas, married, of 536 Tupda Village, Julian Felipe Street, Caloocan City.

Fariñas’ friends, Conrado Paltao, 47, driver, and Carlos de Vera, 20, single, were also taken to the same hospital after the shooting. De Vera was released after treatment of a minor gunshot wound in the right arm while Paltao remains under observation after undergoing an operation for two gunshot wounds in the body.

Suspect Roderick Roque alias "Odek," 20, was later collared by the police in a follow-up operation. Still being hunted are suspects Geraldo Gayo alias "Eddie," of 146 Tupda Village and Roderick’s brother, Allan, who is also known as "Ontong," 23, the victims’ neighbors.