A police sergeant and four suspected robbers were killed in a bloody shootout in the town of Bayaguana in the Monte Plata province. According to the story in Hoy, the alleged thieves attempted to rob a cooperative savings and loan office. As the story goes, the thieves entered the Cooperativa El Progreso in the town of Bayaguana, ordering everyone to get down on the floor. They were dressed in military uniforms and carried pistols, revolvers and shotguns. Motoconcho drivers passing by noticed the hold-up in progress and informed the police. When the group realized the assault had been detected, they fled in two cars and were pursued by Police Colonel Marcelli Gonzalez and intercepted in the community of Chirino, 40 kilometers northwest of Santo Domingo. It was there that Sergeant Juan Garcia Aquino, the post commander, was killed. Also killed in the action was Police Private Angel Bido Gonzalez, identified as one of the robbers, and three others who lived in the Capotillo barrio. Another of the robbers, Oliver Mena Betance, who has four arrests on his record, was captured along with a 12-gauge shotgun. One of the thieves, identified by El Caribe?s Oscar Hubieres as ?Morenito,? managed to escape in one of the cars. The death of the police sergeant leaves four children, the eldest just ten years of age, without a father.