The family of Luigie Baron, a 21-year-old Navotas City resident who was shot dead on Sunday night, has protested the police’s claim that his death was drug-related.
According to a report of the Navotas police, a sachet of dried marijuana leaves was recovered from Baron after he was gunned down by a still-unidentified assailant at a tenement housing site, a short walk from his house in Barangay San Roque.
Footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera showed Baron on his bicycle on Leongson Extension being followed by the gunman, before he was shot in the head at close range. The victim was later declared dead on arrival at Navotas City Hospital.
Not on drug list
Baron’s mother, Morena, insisted that her son was not involved in the drug trade and was not even on the barangay drug watch list. Baron, whose dream was to be a model or a dancer, looked after the family’s sari-sari (retail) store, she said.
“How is it the police found the marijuana not in his pockets or from his body but only near the crime scene? Somebody must have planted it there,” she said.
The family believed that the death of Baron, the eldest in a brood of five, could be connected to an attempt on his life in March. She recalled that her son was stabbed by gang members in the village who were envious of him because of his popularity in their neighborhood.
“It is easy to call his death as drug-related instead of further investigating the case,” Morena added.
The victim left behind a 16-year-old girlfriend who was four months pregnant.