Kin seek justice for teen killed by Pangasinan cops

DAGUPAN CITY—Christine Lopez buried her 17-year-old son, Joshua Laxamana, on Sept. 1 in Tarlac City, anguishing over his death supposedly at the hands of policemen from Pangasinan province on Aug. 17.

The last time she saw Joshua alive was at their house at Barangay San Vicente in Tarlac City on Aug. 14. Joshua was not feeling well, so Lopez intended to ask her employer to excuse her from work the next day so she could take the boy to a doctor.

But on Aug. 15, Lopez was told that her son, along with two friends, had left for Baguio City to join a tournament among enthusiasts of DotA (Defense of the Ancients), a popular multiplayer online video game.

Lopez, 34, a single mother, would see her son again a week later at a morgue in Pangasinan.

Checkpoint

She was told that Joshua was killed in an encounter with the police in Rosales town on Aug. 17. Police said Joshua evaded a checkpoint at Balungao town in Pangasinan and sped off on his motorcycle toward Rosales.

Alerted by the Balungao police, Rosales policemen set up a checkpoint at Barangay Bakit-Bakit, but Joshua’s motorcycle skidded on a road shoulder and crashed as he tried to turn toward Cuyapo town in neighboring Nueva Ecija province.

Joshua supposedly fired first at pursuing policemen after he was cornered at Barangay Acop in Rosales at 3:10 a.m. He was killed in the ensuing exchange of gunfire.

Crime scene investigators supposedly found in Joshua’s possession a .45-caliber pistol, bullets, a plastic sachet of suspected “shabu” (crystal meth) and a backpack containing his personal belongings.

Police also linked Joshua to four robberies in Pangasinan.

Video game ‘addict’

But Lopez said she was not buying the police story. She said Joshua could not drive a motorcycle and did not own a gun.

Her son’s addiction was to DotA, she said, adding that he would often stay overnight at computer shops in their neighborhood.

She said her son had a clean record. The tattoo on Joshua’s left hand was a DotA character but that did not make him a gangster, she said. A DotA enthusiast here confirmed the character was “Queen of Pain,” one of the game’s heroes.

Joshua was scheduled to join an international DotA competition abroad next month. He had enrolled in the Department of Education’s Alternative Learning System, intending to pursue a degree in a computer school.

One of Joshua’s two companions told Lopez that they were on their way home on Aug. 16, after hitching a ride on a cargo truck that was leaving Baguio.

According to the account, Joshua and his companions got off at Pozorrubio town in Pangasinan when the truck driver decided to spend the night there.

Joshua and a companion, identified as Julius Sebastian, 15, decided to continue the trip home, leaving behind their friend. When the friend arrived in Tarlac the following day, Joshua and Sebastian were not there. Sebastian is still missing.