Authorities in Ajuy, Iloilo, arrested on Monday night a suspect in the deadly robbery-holdup incident at the Robinsons Galleria mall in Quezon City last month.

Willy Enriquez, 45, was arrested around 8 p.m. when he met with his wife at the Ubos crossing in Brgy. Poblacion, Western Visayas regional police director Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol said.

“Enriquez was a subjected to a week-long surviellance after he was positively identified by witnesses,” Querol said in a statement.

The suspect went into hiding in Lemery, Iloilo, a few days following the bloody heist, according to the regional police chief.

Querol said National Capital Region Police Office chief Dir. Allan Purisima sent men to Iloilo and coordinated with him, so he ordered the surveillance operations.

Enriquez yielded a caliber-.45 pistol loaded with eight live ammunition when arrested.

Police also arrested Enriquez’s companion, Erenio Dela Cruz, after he was found carrying a loaded caliber-.38 revolver.

On March 29, Enriquez and another armed man entered Robinsons Galleria before 10 a.m. and went to the mall’s first level to rob roving tellers of Security Bank, who were then delivering money.

A shootout then ensued between the robbers and the bank’s security guards.

Guard Rodrigo Villa, of the Gallant Security Agency, was brought to the hospital but was declared dead upon arrival by doctors.

Roderick Reloso, another guard, was hurt in the shootout while bank teller Lea del Mundo and civilian shoppers Paul Adrian, Johansen Donesia, and Jeremy Rabe were injured in the explosion caused by a grenade thrown by the suspects. (John Roson)

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