Armed robbers caught by police after 4-hour chase

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The police chased down an armed group after they robbed a convenience store in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, according to the "24 Oras" report of Jun Veneracion on Wednesday.

Security footage showed how a white van parked in front of a convenience store around 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday night. At first, the suspects pretended that they were looking for something to buy.

Later, one of the suspects suddenly pulled a gun at the cashier and raided the cash register. The suspects tied up two male customers and brought them to the stockroom.

They then brought the cashier to the stockroom and made her open the vault. Right after the suspects left, the personnel of the convenience store called the police.

The police chased the suspects for four hours before catching up with them at the boundary of Alaminos, Laguna and Sto. Tomas, Batangas at around 2:00 a.m.

The authorities arrested six suspects.

“Actually mga bata pa ito, age nila is ranging from 19 to 22 (Actually these are kids, their ages are from 19 to 22). During the interrogation they also admitted that they are involved in some robbery incidents somewhere in Rizal province,” said Police Regional Office 3 Director PBGen. Jess Mendez said.

Police Regional Office 4A Director PBGen. Dominic Baccay said, “Maganda ang coordination dito kaya tayo ay nakapaghanda agad ng dragnet operation. So inabangan na natin itong puting van na ito… Prepared 'yung tropa natin nang i-accost sila sa kalsada.”

(There was good coordination here so we were able to prepare a dragnet operation, So we were expecting this white van… our troops were prepared to accost them on the road.)

Police recovered four guns from the group, four grenades, car plates and the P35,000 that was taken from the convenience store.

Among those arrested were the leader of the group who had two warrants of arrest for carnapping and robbery.

Police Regional Office 3 say that this group mainly operated in Calabarzon. — Jean Mangaluz/BAP, GMA News