2 dead, 2 hurt in Manila hostage drama

MANILA, Philippines - A security guard of a glass company held hostage seven of his co-workers, killing one of them and wounding two others before turning the gun on himself in Manila at past noon yesterday. 

Fernando Cano went berserk and started shooting at his co-workers in the office of Chain Glass Enterprises Inc. at the intersection of Rizal Avenue Extension and Pampanga street a few minutes after police officers of the Manila Police District’s theft and robbery section left the area, according to initial reports from the MPD’s homicide section.

The police officers were investigating a burglary, possibly an “inside job,” in which the firm lost P1 million a few weeks ago.

Homicide investigators said Cano’s fellow employees reportedly began “teasing” him after the police officers left that he was going to jail.

Marketing manager Ricky Mesina and employees Mark Victorino Salas and Melanie Alejandro were hit in the initial volley.

Other employees hid in different rooms to escape Cano. 

An employee, who managed to sneak out of the building a few seconds after Cano started shooting, said he and other co-workers took the victims to the Chinese General Hospital.

Mesina died while being treated, according to MPD director Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana.

Three more employees managed to get out of the building around 2 p.m. before Nana ordered a negotiation.

Cano’s wife, Melanie, arrived and called on her husband to surrender, but no one in the building responded.

 Good employee

Cano worked for the United Security and Watchman Agency. Roger Salvilla, USWA’s operation officer, rushed to the scene after learning of the incident.

Salvilla told The STAR that Cano, who lived with his family in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan City, had been with the company for over 15 years.

Salvilla said Cano has been assigned to Chain Glass for over 10 years “and had no derogatory records.”

“Maybe he was disturbed by the insinuations that he has something to do with the robbery,” he said.

Silence

Worried when neither Cano nor the employees he held hostage responded to their calls, Nana ordered police officers to enter the building at around 2:25 p.m.

Melanie repeatedly begged her husband to surrender before the operation started, but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Nana and his men, however, were surprised to find Cano slumped near the door of a second-floor restroom, with a gunshot wound in the head. 

A barangay official who lives behind the building said he heard a gunshot a few seconds after police officers entered the building.

Investigators said that could have been the time Cano shot himself.