MANILA – (UPDATE 3 – 9:10 a.m., August 30, 2017) Police shot dead a man who went on a stabbing rampage in a Pasay City condominium Tuesday night, killing five people and wounding four others.
Eyewitnesses said the deadly spree in the Central Park Condominium of the man identified as Alberto Garan, 36, was apparently triggered by a heated argument with his partner, Evelyn Sagun, 30, who he repeatedly stabbed then hurled into the stairwell from the 16th floor.
Sagun’s body was recovered at the foot of the stairs on the ground floor of the building.
Garan then turned on other residents of the building, killing three more, including a 12-year old girl coming home from school, and wounding seven others, two of who late died.
It took police SWAT teams some five hours to find Garan, who they “neutralized” when he allegedly went at them in a unit at the 22nd floor of the condominium along D. Jorge Street in Barangay 132.
Aside from the knife he used, a .38 caliber revolver was also recovered from Garan.
Sagun’s sister said Evelyn and Garan arrived at the condominium from Cagayan province Saturday and asked if they could stay. The next day Garan left, saying he was going to Novaliches.
When he returned, he began quarreling with his partner, grappling for her mobile phone, and then ran amok.
Authorities declared a lockdown in the building as the crisis unfolded, and National Capital Region Police Office chief Oscar Albayalde soon came rushing to the scene, accompanied by Director Tomas Apolinario of the Southern Police District and Senior Supt. Dionisio Bartolome, Pasay police chief.
They deployed search teams from the 17th to the top of the building on the 25th, after Garan disappeared from view, according to a report on DZRH.
Albayalde said the room clearing was made difficult by the fact that “this building was dark. There’s no CCTV and many of the lights were busted.”
The names of the victims were later released by authorities.
Fatalities:
- Emelyn Sagun, 30
- Daisery Castillo, 12
- Joel Palacios, 70
- Ligaya Dimapilis, 36
- Letecia Ecsiagan, in her 50s
Wounded:
- Belcris Elorde
- April Joy Sagarino
- Arlyn Dian Cordero
- Margie Morales