Calabarzon PNP chief claims Halili’s killer not a sniper

Police Regional Office 4-A (PRO 4-A) Director Chief Supt. Edward Carranza. PHOTO by Gabriel Pabico Lalu/INQUIRER.net

Police Regional Office 4-A (PRO 4-A) Director Chief Supt. Edward Carranza dispelled rumors that Tanauan City Mayor Antonio Halili was killed by a sniper, saying that the distance between the gunman and the local executive was a mere 160 meters.

“At a distance of 160 meters anybody who is proficient enough in a long firearm can hit the target even when using the still sight, you can already hit the targets,” he explained on Wednesday at a press briefing inside Camp Crame.

“Once we speak of snipers we refer to a distance of 500 meters and beyond.  We have some training in sniper course we go as far as 1 kilometer in hitting the target,” he added.

Carranza, who said before the briefing that he had some training in sniper firing, relayed the army’s definition of snipers.

“I just talked with members of the Philippine Army yesterday, the second infantry division… I just talked with General Paraino, he told me from a distance of 500 meters, that’s the time they are using snipers,” he said.

“Well once you say the person is a sniper you have to go through a series of trainings, and not everybody who are used to handling long firearms can join a sniping course,” he added.

Initial reports from different news agencies used the word sniper to describe Halili’s killer, after the assailant was not seen in any of the frames of the different video clips.

READ: Tanauan mayor likely killed by sniper – Calabarzon police

However, Carranza said that the firearm used could possibly be an M16 or M4 assault rifle and not a sniper rifle.

“You can use an M4 an M16 or as long as it is using a 5.6 millimeter, it’s considered a rifle.  So ‘don sa 7.62 (millimeter) that’s also a rifle but of a bigger diameter ang bullet traveling in a trajectory,” he said.

The Calabarzon police chief also said that the re-enactment scheduled tomorrow would provide more details about the incident.

“I have already tasked the PNP crime lab together with the SITG commander for the reenaction.  We would like to distinguish whether it is really in the place where there is some sort of distortion of grasses that indeed the gunman had prepositioned in shooting Mayor Tony Halili,” Carranza explained. /ee

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