Cop shot dead, 70 held up in province-bound bus

Police are hunting six men and two women after they shot dead the other night a 37-year-old policeman and robbed about 70 people inside a passenger bus along EDSA, in Quezon City.

Victim PO1 Epifanio Torres, assigned to the Central Police District-Central Investigation Unit, sustained a bullet wound in the head and died at the Polymedic Hospital.

The robbers, all armed with handguns of still unknown caliber, also robbed about 70 passengers of a northbound Genesis Transport bus (TVV-328).

Policemen said Torres was on his way home to the province to watch his eight-year-old son participate in a karate competition. He flagged down the over-crowded bus along EDSA near MIA lane. The assailants had boarded the same vehicle earlier at the bus terminal in Pasay City.

As the bus reached the flyover between Quezon Avenue and EDSA at about 7:20 p.m., the robbers announced the heist. They took out their firearms and started divesting some 70 passengers of cash and valuables, many of whom were standing because there were no more seats available.

When one of the gunmen demanded cash from Torres, the victim resisted and tried to put up a fight. One of the killers pointed a handgun at him and without warning, shot him once in the back of the head.

Torres collapsed on the floor of the bus and the robbers took his service firearm and other personal belongings. The culprits then ordered the bus driver to make a U-turn at the boundary of Quezon and Caloocan cities and proceeded south.

Two of the assailants alighted at Balintawak while four of them got-off later near the Star Mall on Shaw Boulevard. The last two were seen leaving the bus in front of Producer’s Market along Mandaluyong.

Torres was rushed to the hospital where he expired at about 7:45 p.m. Investigators are now conducting follow-up operations to determine the robbers’ identities and whereabouts.