MABALACAT, Pampanga – A cops-and-robbers chase that began in Tarlac City ended at dawn yesterday in Barangay Mamatitang here with police coming out empty-handed.
The suspects, alleged members of a notorious hold-up gang, scampered out of their car soon as it stopped along MacArthur Highway and ran to the village.
Insp. Joshua Gonzales, police officer-in-charge here, said the three unidentified suspects were able to elude the combined elements of the Tarlac and Capas police when they climbed rooms and entered properties in Barangay San Joaquin.
“They used the darkness of the area to escape and they entered a thickly populated area giving police a hard time to apprehend them,” said Gonzales in the dialect.
Police said the Anfra vehicle with plate number TTJ-399 had been tagged as the vehicle used in at least three hold-up incidents in Tarlac.
Gonzales said the suspects staged another hold-up past midnight in Tarlac City victimizing a truck driver and his companions. They stole some P40,000 pesos and one cellphone from the victims.
Police said one of the suspects hurt the driver using an ice pick. He was treated for minor wound in the neck at a private hospital in San Joaquin.
Police have yet to release the names of the victims.
Gonzales said the victims helped the Tarlac cops chase the suspects who hastily abandoned them upon sensing they were spotted by cops.
San Joaquin Barangay Chief Davidson David said some residents saw two men at the rooftop of houses along Magsaysay Street at about 4:00 a.m. but they were warned however not to intervene. The suspects fled towards the so-called Tramo area here. The village chief was asked by Mabalacat cops to help arrest the suspects believed to be armed and dangerous.
David said the police recovered clothes and a driver’s license registered in Ilocos Norte inside the white-colored Anfra.
He added that the police would not reveal the name in the license so as not to pre-empt their follow-up operations.
The suspects, alleged members of a notorious hold-up gang, scampered out of their car soon as it stopped along MacArthur Highway and ran to the village.
Insp. Joshua Gonzales, police officer-in-charge here, said the three unidentified suspects were able to elude the combined elements of the Tarlac and Capas police when they climbed rooms and entered properties in Barangay San Joaquin.
“They used the darkness of the area to escape and they entered a thickly populated area giving police a hard time to apprehend them,” said Gonzales in the dialect.
Police said the Anfra vehicle with plate number TTJ-399 had been tagged as the vehicle used in at least three hold-up incidents in Tarlac.
Gonzales said the suspects staged another hold-up past midnight in Tarlac City victimizing a truck driver and his companions. They stole some P40,000 pesos and one cellphone from the victims.
Police said one of the suspects hurt the driver using an ice pick. He was treated for minor wound in the neck at a private hospital in San Joaquin.
Police have yet to release the names of the victims.
Gonzales said the victims helped the Tarlac cops chase the suspects who hastily abandoned them upon sensing they were spotted by cops.
San Joaquin Barangay Chief Davidson David said some residents saw two men at the rooftop of houses along Magsaysay Street at about 4:00 a.m. but they were warned however not to intervene. The suspects fled towards the so-called Tramo area here. The village chief was asked by Mabalacat cops to help arrest the suspects believed to be armed and dangerous.
David said the police recovered clothes and a driver’s license registered in Ilocos Norte inside the white-colored Anfra.
He added that the police would not reveal the name in the license so as not to pre-empt their follow-up operations.
