THREE members of a carjacking and robbery holdup group were killed on Wednesday in a shootout with a combined team of the National Police’s Highway Patrol Group’s Task Force Limbas and Cavite policemen.

Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina, HPG commander, said the fatalities, whose identities were still being determined by Scene of the Crime Operatives, were killed after they engaged policemen in a gun battle in Dasmariñas City, Cavite.

Espina said Task Force Limbas operatives were in Cavite for the HPG’s intensified campaign against carjackers and highway criminals when they encountered the gunmen, who were onboard a stolen Toyota Vios car and two motorcycles.

He said the Limbas agents and Dasmariñas policemen were conducting checkpoint near the Technological University of the Philippines campus at Barangay Salitran when the Vios with license plate ZBX-561 and the two motorcycles bearing the gunmen arrived.

However, rather than stopping at the checkpoint, the motorcycles and the Vios sped away, prompting the policemen to give chase.

As they were being pursued, the suspects fired at the operatives, triggering a shootout.

Two gunmen aboard the Vios died on the spot while another one, who was driving one of the motorcycles, expired in a hospital where he was taken.

Espina said that other gunmen who were in the Vios as well as the one driving the other motorcycle escaped.

Recovered from the scene were three caliber .45 pistols, a motorcycle with license plate PT-5992 and a gray Toyota Vios.

Espina said the license plate with number ZBX-561 that was attached to the Vios was originally issued to a Ford Focus sedan.

Found inside the Vios were a Nokia cellular telephone, a pair of vehicle license plates with number ZPK-767, documents, medical kits and clothing that include a blue police T-shirt.

Espina said the license plate with number ZPK-677 found inside the Vios was its original license plate.

Espina said the Vios was forcibly taken by three armed men from Ramon Angelo Josayta in front of the McDonald’s outlet on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City on Tuesday.

Josayta reported the incident to the HPG.

He claimed that his cellular phone, documents and other belongings were also taken by the carjackers.