2 alleged drug pushers slain in Lucena buy-busts

LUCENA CITY — Police killed two alleged drug pushers in separate buy-bust operations here Wednesday and Thursday, police said.

Francis Jerome Bartolome, 25, a former drug detainee, was about to be arrested after he sold “shabu”(crystal meth) to an undercover police officer inside his motorcycle repair shop in Barangay (village) Isabang at 4:50 p.m. Thursday, according to a report by Lucena police chief Lt. Col. Reydante Ariza.

But Bartolome reportedly resisted arrest, took his .38-caliber revolver from a table drawer, and shot the police agent and his back-up policemen but missed his targets.

Patrolman Albert Serrano fired back and killed the suspect on the spot.

Police tagged Bartolome as a notorious shabu peddler using his motorcycle shop as a base of operation.

On Wednesday afternoon, anti-drugs operatives killed another suspected drug pusher, Roger Nuñez, in Barangay Dalahican.

A report said Nuñez was about to be arrested after he sold shabu to a police agent but he ran inside his house, grabbed a caliber .38 revolver and shot the undercover police but missed.

One of the back-up policemen returned fire and killed the suspect.