‘I will kill you,’ witness claims police doctor said before shooting youth in Davao bar
FREE FOR NOW Dr. Marvin Rey Andrew Pepino (third from right, in vest and helmet), suspect in the killing of 19-year-old student Amierkhan Mangacop on July 2, posts bail at the Davao City Hall of Justice on Thursday. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
DAVAO CITY—“I will kill you, sige, sige laban (c’mon, fight).”
This was what Dr. Marvin Rey Andrew Pepino, a non-uniformed personnel of the Police Regional Office 11 accused of killing the 19-year-old Amierkhan Mangacop, said as he brandished his gun minutes before the killing, a witness told the Inquirer.
The witness, a cousin of Mangacop, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told the Inquirer that he saw Pepino pointing a gun at Amierkhan and then at him while repeatedly saying it minutes before killing the Grade 9 student outside Lugar Bar and Cafe in this city at the dawn of July 2.
“Nung nakita ko si Pepino na bumunot ng baril niya habang sinasabi niya sa amin na (When I saw Pepino take his gun while telling us), ‘I will kill you, sige, sige, laban (c’mon, fight),’ pinigilan ko na po yung mga pinsan ko na lumapit sa kanya kasi nga po may baril siya. Then saka po niya tinutok sa akin yung kanyang baril habang paulit-ulit na sinasabi (I tried to stop my cousins because he had a gun and it was then that he turned to me and pointed his gun and repeatedly said, ‘I will kill you. Sige, sige laban,’” the witness said.
The Inquirer was sent a copy of the CCTV footage taken from the building that housed the Lugar Bar and Cafe. The footage showed the last moments of the Grade 9 student as he arrived at the scene to fetch his cousin a few minutes before he died.
The footage also showed a friend of Pepino, whose late father and grandfather were police generals, trying to stop Pepino from approaching the youths minutes before he fired his gun.
The CCTV footage, which was from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), but was sent to the Inquirer by the Mangacop family, showed the group of young people who had started walking away from the bar, heading to the ramp at 1:03:03 a.m.
Eight seconds later, at 1:03:11 a.m. on the CCTV camera, Pepino was walking towards the group but was being stopped by his friend. Pepino eventually reached Amierkhan’s cousin and the cousin’s friend, who was drunk, and was seen on the CCTV leaning on the hood of a car.
At 1:03:51, Amierkhan’s cousin was talking to Pepino and his friend, but at 1:03:59 a.m., someone from the group pushed Pepino away from Amierkhan’s cousin and the drunk friend, resulting in a scuffle between Pepino, Pepino’s friend, and the friends of Amierkhan’s cousin.
It was here, barely six seconds later, at 1:04:05 a.m. when Amierkhan, still wearing his motorcycle helmet, was captured in the periphery of the camera frame, running towards the parking area from across the street.
At 1:04:07 a.m., a policeman was removing Amierkhan’s cousin away from the scuffle, and barely two seconds later, at 1:04:09, Amierkhan passed by where the group was standing.
At 1:04:12 a.m. Pepino was seen pointing his gun at the boys, identified to the Inquirer as Amierkhan’s cousins. Pepino stumbled on the parking pavement but immediately recovered and stood up.
At 1:04:19 a.m. Pepino was seen tucking his gun back on his waist as he started approaching Amierkhan and his cousins, who were walking away from him.
At 1:04:26 a.m. he was seen removing his gun from his waist as he continued to approach Amierkhan and his cousins who were fleeing.
At 1:04:31 a.m. Pepino was pushed to the PWD ramp (first gunshot) and a scuffle occurred.
At 1:04:40 a.m., a policeman was visible in the frame.
At 1:04:47 a.m., the policeman and someone with a motorcycle helmet were seen running away from the scuffle. Another man, identified as a cousin of Amierkhan, was seen trying to stop Pepino but Pepino continued firing his gun.
Amierkhan’s body bore six gunshot wounds, all fatal.
NBI 11, which conducted a parallel investigation on the incident, noted the use of hollow point bullets, a special kind of bullet used only in special operations as it would create a bigger wound once it hits the victim,” NBI 11 spokesperson Ely Leaño explained earlier.
“(Once a) particular shooter uses that bullet, (it could mean that) he had the intention to inflict a serious injury or a serious wound on his victim, and of course, with the ballistic examination (and) the bullet’s trajectory line analysis being conducted, we were able to get the exact measurement of the five bullets that hit the body of the victim,” he said.
The City Prosecutor’s Office, however, downgraded on July 22 the case against Pepino to a homicide, which allowed him to post P180,000 bail (P120,000 for homicide and P60,000 for RA10591 (absence of permit to carry outside of residence).
On July 26, the Regional Trial Court Branch 17 granted the precautionary hold-departure order for Pepino, barring him from leaving the country and including his name in the hold-departure list of the Bureau of Immigration Office here and in Manila and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
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