Cop slain in Sta. Cruz ambush

MANILA, Philippines - A member of the Philippine National Police’s Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) was killed in an ambush in Sta. Cruz, Manila Thursday night, the Manila Police District (MPD) reported yesterday.

Senior Police Officer 1 Rodrigo Cortez Jr., 45, was walking along M. Natividad street when a man who had been following him shot him with a .9mm pistol at around 9 p.m., according to a report by SPO1 Ramir Dimagiba. The victim died on the spot.

Dimagiba said witness David Lonceros, 55, a vendor, observed a woman looking intently at the victim before and during the shooting, then left at the same time as Cortez’s killer but in a different direction.

The gunman fled on foot to an adjoining alley leading to Oroquieta street then boarded a passing jeepney, while the woman boarded an unmarked motorcycle waiting for her near a fastfood outlet at the corner of Tayuman and M. Natividad streets.

The gunman was described to be around 30, slim, and about 5’5” tall.