LUBAO, Pampanga- A mission to search the home of a suspect for illegal possession of firearms evolved into a firefi ght that killed him and wounded a policeman in Sitio Mutla in Barangay San Roque Arbol here last Tuesday.
Newly installed Pampanga police director Senior Supt. Marlon Madrid cited a report saying that at about 6:20 a.m. Tuesday, a police team from the local police and the Regional Public Safety Battalion tried to serve an arrest warrant against Jesus Torres, alias Boy Pana, 43, in his home in Sitio Mutla.
Madrid said the police teams were armed with a search warrant issued the previous day by Guagua Regional Trial Court judge Jonel Mercado amid reports that the suspect kept arms and bullets in his home. “Upon the arrival of the operatives, the suspect hid and locked himself inside one of the bedrooms in the house.
As the operating teams started their search, Boy suddenly opened the door of the bedroom he was hiding in and opened fire at the officers,” Madrid said. PO2 Randy Pascasio of the Regional Public Safety Battalion was hit but was initially not harmed because of the bullet vest he was wearing, he noted.
Madrid said that “subsequently, the suspect threw a hand grenade at them causing PO2 Pascasio to sustain shrapnel wounds in his right arm. He was rushed to the nearest hospital for medical treatment.” He said that more cops from the maneuver company of the SWAT team from the provincial police, led by Inspector Ohmar Bognot, then arrived.
This apparently further provoked the suspect who lobbed another grenade at the cops. “The responding teams had no other options left but to use reasonable force that led to the neutralization of the suspect,” Madrid noted.
He also said that a “SOCO Team from Regional Crime Laboratory 3, Camp Olivas processed the crime scene” and that “Inquest Prosecutor Armando Dela Cruz from the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor also went to the place of incidence and conducted on-site inquest.”
The police found and confiscated the following items from the house of Torres: a red motorcycle with plate No. 9546 XY, one HONDA TMX 155, one WAVE 100, one box containing a heatsealed transparent plastic sachet with white crystalline substance suspected as shabu, one 12-gauge shotgun, one bolo with bloodstains, one .22 rifle, 22 shotgun cartridges, one samurai sword, one piece blonde wig, one airsoft gun, one unexploded hand grenade with detached fuse assembly, two lever hand grenades, three safety pins, one roll aluminum foil, some cement sample used in explosives, two deformed bullets, three .38 cartridges, nine .22 cartridges, one deformed hand grenade fuse assembly, three shotgun fired cartridge cases, and one Starmobile cellular phone.
The cadaver of the suspect was taken to CS Velasquez Funeral Homes in Guagua for autopsy. Madrid commended the operating teams for their “collective efforts in neutralizing the suspect and preventing the incident from escalating.”
