Cop shoots dead construction worker mistaken for robber in Pampanga

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — In an apparent case of mistaken identity, a police officer pursuing a suspect in a robbery-holdup case instead shot dead a construction worker in Sta. Rita town, Pampanga on Saturday night, reports gathered by the INQUIRER showed.

Capt. Renemer Cruz, Sta. Rita police chief, immediately placed Cpl. Eframe Ramirez under restrictive custody, and his issued firearm has been surrendered.

An investigation on the death of Federico “Tek” Pineda, 29, is ongoing, Col. Arnold Thomas Ibay, Pampanga police director, confirmed in a phone interview on Sunday.

Gov. Dennis Pineda said he ordered the disarming of Ramirez as well as criminal and administrative proceedings against him.

Michelle Pagauisan reached out to the INQUIRER to say that the cop mistook her brother for the suspect who robbed and stabbed a couple who owned a computer shop in Sunny Side Subdivision in Barangay San Matias.

Pagauisan said her brother was celebrating the 7th birthday of his daughter on Saturday night until he decided to take a drunk uncle home.

The suspect reportedly wore a white undershirt similar to that of Pineda’s based on security camera footage. Both entered the same door of a cockpit arena where Pineda passed as an access route to his uncle’s house.

That was when the policemen were shown trying to stop Pineda because he was not wearing a face mask. Pineda wore a shirt over his face.

According to Pagauisan, police chased Pineda who rode a motorcycle from the cockpit arena to a health center.

She said her brother ran to his in-laws’ house despite a gunshot at his back. There, in front of his friends, he was said to have dropped dead.

JE