Cop guns down neighbor in Manila over feud

MANILA, Philippines—A policeman chased a neighbor with whom he had been feuding, shot him at the back to prevent him from getting away and finished him off with a bullet to the chin early Thursday in Manila’s Tondo district, police said.

Senior Police Officer 2 Glenzor Vallejo of the MPD homicide section said Police Officer 1 Rustico Gabuco Jr., 28, even removed the cap worn by the wounded, Jun King Medrano, before firing a bullet into his chin.

Medrano, 22, a mechanic, of Rodriguez Street in Tondo, died while undergoing treatment at the Mary Johnston Hospital.

Gabuco, who was assigned at Station 10 in Pandacan, fled after the shooting and is now the object of a hunt by his colleagues, Vallejo said.

According to Vallejo, the shooting happened around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday at the corner of Pacheco and Amethyst streets in Tondo while Medrano was talking to a friend, pedicab driver Rodel Sumang, 29.

Vallejo said that Gabuco was in another pedicab from which he immediately alighted upon spotting Medrano, who also ran away on seeing the policeman brandishing his 9-mm service firearm.

Gabuco pursued the mechanic and fired at him. When Medrano keeled over from a bullet in the back that exited in the chest, the policeman approached his fallen neighbor and shot him again before walking away, Vallejo said.

According to the investigator, neighbors of the two men claimed that the killing had been motivated by an old feud but none of them could give specific details as to what the fight was about.