Cop draws first, kills fleeing armed robber along Natalio Bacalso Avenue

Mambaling police officers check on the bicycle that the armed robber used in trying to escape from a pursuing police officer. | Photo by Benjjie Talisic

CEBU CITY, Philippines — An armed robber was killed after he tried to shoot it out with a police officer, who pursued him after he stole the cellphone of a jeepney passenger along Natalio Bacalso Avenue in Cebu City at past 10 p.m. on Saturday, February 9.

The then wounded robber was rushed by the police officer to the Cebu City Medical Center where doctors there declared the wounded robber dead on arrival, said Senior Inspector Francis Renz Talosig, Mambaling Police Precinct chief, in a phone interview with Cebu Daily News Digital.

Talosig said as of past midnight they still did not know the identity of the dead robber.

According to initial reports, Talosig said that at past 10 p.m., the victim, Arve Campaner, took a jeepney ride home to Barangay Mambaling from the downtown area.

Campaner rode at the front seat of the passenger jeepney while there was another passenger who was inside the jeepney and was sitting directly behind him (Campaner).

Campaner told police that when they reached a stoplight in Natalio Bacalso Avenue, the passenger behind him pulled out a gun and declared a holdup.

The robber then took his cellphone, got off the passenger jeepney and fled on foot.

Campaner would have pursued the robber, but the jeepney driver stopped him and told him that they should seek help from a police officer assigned in the area.

They proceeded to the CIT area where a motorcycle police officer was posted and told him about the robbery.

The police officer, PO3 Malbert Baluntang, got on his motorbike and together with the victim scoured the area near where the robbery happened to look for the suspect.

They found him talking to a person at the corner of N. Bacalso Avenue and R. Padilla Street.

But when the suspect saw the approaching motorcycle driven by the police officer with the victim as a backrider, the suspect turned and run to a parked bicycle nearby.

He then got on the bike and tried to escape on his bike, but the police officer continued to pursue him.

Then the suspect suddenly stopped his bicycle and was seen pulling out a gun from his waist.

PO3 Baluntang, however, was fast on the draw and fired at the suspect when he saw what the suspect was doing.

The robber fell from his bike after he was hit by the bullets of the police officer’s firearm.

 Talosig said that a .38 caliber revolver was found in the area where the suspect fell.

He said the cellphone of the victim was also recovered from the pocket of the suspect’s short pants./dbs