Cop yields, claims he shot wife dead by accident

She tried to grab his gun and it went off by accident.

So claimed the Tuguegarao City-based policeman who allegedly shot his wife dead inside her rented room in Manila on June 6, as he surrendered before noon Thursday to members of the Manila Police District (MPD).

The MPD said PO1 Nathan Legasi confirmed that he secretly followed his wife Krizzia, a 26-year-old registered nurse, at her apartment in Sampaloc, but that he accidentally shot her in the face when they began quarrelling.

Legasi, a member of the 1st Manuever Company of the Police Regional Office II 2nd Regional Public Safety Battalion in Tuguegarao, initially yielded to his superior officer, Senior Supt. Greg Lim, at their headquarters.

Lim then turned him over Thursday to MPD homicide section personnel led by Senior Insp. Joselito de Ocampo, who went to Tuguegarao City to fetch him.

“Legasi claimed he wanted to surrender earlier but was scared and confused,” De Ocampo told the Inquirer.

The homicide section chief said that based on Legasi’s version of the incident, he went to see his wife at her rented room at the NIC Apartment on Manrique Street in Sampaloc to convince her to return with him to Tuguegarao.

De Ocampo said Legasi insisted that he had no intention to kill his wife.

“He claimed he had brandished his .45-cal. pistol only to scare her into agreeing to come home with him,” De Ocampo explained.

The suspect further claimed that during his argument with Krizzia, a scuffle ensued wherein she tried to grab his gun.

“In that struggle, the gun went off and the victim was accidentally hit in the face,” De Ocampo said, quoting Legasi’s statement.

The suspect fled the crime scene in fear and only surrendered after he was convinced by his superiors and his father, De Ocampo added.

MPD investigators earlier said Krizzia was a battered wife who was trying to get away from an abusive, jealous spouse, and that she had left Tuguegarao for Manila to apply for a job and start a new life in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Krizzia had been staying for two weeks at the apartment when Legasi, who posed as a new tenant and used the alias Joshua Pacete of Mabalacat, Pampanga, caught up with her on June 6.