Doctor safe; guard nabbed in QC hospital hostage incident

FILE: East Avenue Medical Center in Diliman, Quezon City (Photo by PatrickRoque01/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA – Authorities rescued a doctor who was held hostage by a wounded security guard at the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City on Wednesday.

In its report, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU) of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) said the suspect Hilarion Achondo, 51, a native of Ilagan City, Isabela, went to the hospital to have himself checked after suffering injuries from a motorcycle accident.

The victim, Dr. Russel Anne Carandang, who was on duty shortly before 6 a.m., was busy attending to the patients inside the emergency room of the hospital when the suspect took a syringe and suddenly grabbed her on the neck.

The suspect pointed the syringe to the victim’s neck, causing a commotion in the area.

Staff Sgt. Bienvenido Ribaya III, one of the five police officers inside the hospital, tried to negotiate with Achondo, who did not make any demands in exchange for freeing the victim.

After a few minutes, Achondo decided to release Carandang and he was arrested by the police.