MANILA, Philippines - Two men reportedly behind a series of heists involving people who withdraw money from automated teller machines (ATMs) in a subdivision in Quezon City were killed in a gunbattle with police Monday night.
Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Elmo San Diego said they believe the two slain men were behind at least three ATM robberies at Don Antonio Heights in Barangay Holy Spirit.
“The style of this duo is to stake out on the dimly lit sidewalk near the bank and monitor those withdrawing cash from the ATM booth. Once they see any potential victim, they would speed off on board their motorcycle and stage the heist,” Superintendent Marcelino Pedrozo Jr., chief of the QCPD’s District Police Intelligence Operating Unit, told The STAR in an interview.
San Diego said they have yet to identify the two slain suspects, who were using a red Honda XRM motorcycle (IZ-3937). Pedrozo said the motorcycle may have been stolen because the license plates attached to the vehicle were found to be fake.
Citing accounts from the funeral parlor that received the bodies, Chief Inspector Benjamin Elenzano, chief of the QCPD’s Homicide Investigation Section, told The STAR the slain suspects were also residents of Barangay Holy Spirit.
Pedrozo said the suspects, estimated to be in their late 20s, were armed with a .357 caliber revolver and a .38 caliber revolver. One of them died on the spot while the other was declared dead on arrival at East Avenue Medical Center.
Before the encounter, Pedrozo’s office received a telephone call before 9 p.m. Monday from a resident about the presence of two men on a motorcycle roaming the vicinity of a bank.
“The same caller told us that robberies were rampant in the said location and he was afraid the two men may be responsible for those past incidents,” Pedrozo said.
When policemen from the QCPD-DPIOU arrived in the area, they noticed the motorcycle parked on the dimly lit sidewalk near the bank. The driver of the motorcycle had a handkerchief wrapped around his face.
The policemen approached the motorcycle but the suspects fired at them. Policemen fired back and hit the two suspects.
According to Pedrozo, three of the latest robberies in the area involved a store employee, a Korean national and a doctor who were robbed by suspects on a motorcycle after they withdrew cash from an ATM booth. – Reinir Padua