Batangas map. INQUIRER FILES
LUCENA CITY — A suspect died while a police officer was wounded in a shootout in Batangas City on Saturday (September 2).
The Batangas police said in a report Sunday that a team of local police officers who were conducting a follow-up operation found their target, Aristotel De Chavez, inside one of the rooms of a hotel in Barangay (village) Sta. Rita Karsada around 9:40 p.m.
But instead of surrendering, the police said de Chavez fired at the authorities and hit Staff Sergeant Paciano Asilo on his thigh.
The police returned fire to defend themselves. When they made the assault on de Chavez’s location, they found him already dead and lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to his head.
Investigators believed that de Chavez may have shot himself with his own firearm. The caliber of the gun was not specified in the report.
Asilo was taken to the hospital for treatment and is now in stable condition.
Police said de Chavez was a suspect in a shooting case in Barangay Balagtas early Saturday morning.
De Chavez reportedly escaped and sought shelter inside one of the rooms in a hotel.
The report did not provide further details about the earlier shooting incident.
The body of the fatality will be subjected to a post-mortem examination and autopsy to determine the nature of his death.
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