Suspected carjacker escapes

The man who drove off with a woman’s van and later slammed into a tree after a high-speed chase with police escaped from custody yesterday afternoon while undergoing treatment at the Commonwealth Health Center.

Marco S. Fitial, a 24-year-old resident of Garapan, eluded periodic checks by police officers when he left his hospital room at past 5pm yesterday.

Before his escape, the Department of Public Safety reported that Fitial was still confined at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit yesterday afternoon due to serious head and facial injuries.

It appeared, though, that Fitial was released earlier from the ICU and was transferred to room C40. No police officer was guarding Fitial at his hospital room.

DPS spokesman Eric David confirmed that Fitial escaped from the hospital at about 5:38pm.

David said lawmen were supposed to arrest Fitial upon his release from the ICU. While the patient was confined at the ICU, police simply had to conduct periodic checks, he added.

David confirmed that there was no police officer guarding Fitial when the suspected carjacker escaped, but said that police was expecting the hospital to inform them about the patient’s release from the ICU.

It remained unclear as of press time if the hospital failed to timely inform the police of Fitial’s release from ICU or if police simply failed to timely dispatch lawmen to place the suspect in custody. Apparently, police knew about the escape after receiving a call from the hospital.

Police immediately launched a manhunt, scouring villages near the hospital. The suspect was nowhere to be found as of early last night.

David sought help from the public, advising anyone who might see Fitial to report the matter to police by calling 911.

Investigators are now readying charges against Fitial, who drove off with a green Chevrolet Astro van with license plate ACG-123 from the parking lot of Shirley’s Coffee Shop in Garapan Monday afternoon.

Its female owner had gone inside the restaurant to meet with someone, leaving the van’s engine and air-conditioning unit running and her two pet dogs inside. While there, the woman saw Fitial step inside her vehicle through the establishment’s glass wall. She and her male companion gave chase using the latter’s car as Fitial sped away.

The woman communicated with police during the chase. Police vehicles immediately responded and gave chase while others blocked the southbound lanes of Beach Road at the San Jose intersection.

The van then smashed into a tree by the roadside on Beach Road, San Jose, wrecking its front and right side.

The impact of the crash threw the van’s front right wheel several meters away. After the crash, the van skidded to the outer southbound lane of Beach Road and hit the tail of a truck.