Meat dealer's aide slain in P.4-M heist

Three motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead a meat dealer’s aide and fled with at least P400,000 during a robbery at noon yesterday in Valenzuela City.

Christina Navarro, 20, a resident of Barangay Malinta also in Valenzuela, was declared dead on arrival at the Valenzuela City General Hospital due to bullet wounds in the head and chest.

Police Officer 3 Manuel Griarte said Navarro, a trusted aide of a meat dealer at Salvador Miranda public market in Barangay Malinta, was on her way to a bank to deposit their collection of around P400,000 when she was accosted by three men on a motorcycle, who ordered her to hand them a belt bag containing the money. When she resisted, one of the suspects shot her. The suspects grabbed the bag and sped off.

PO3 Percy Villanueva said it was the second time that Navarro’s boss lost money to robbers. He said the suspects in the previous heist could be the same armed men who robbed and killed Navarro. 

Witnesses said the area where the incident occurred is only a few meters away from the Police Community Precinct 4 headed by Inspector Ernesto Castillo and was also teeming with traffic enforcers but none of them noticed the suspects riding on a motorcycle without license plates.        – Pete Laude