Wife killed as cop unloads pistol

A Makati policeman shot and killed his common-law wife in what police described as an accident that happened while the officer was unloading his gun in their second floor bedroom as he prepared to go to work and his wife was having a late afternoon nap on the ground floor on Friday.

The bullet accidentally fired by PO3 Arsenio Gardon went through the wooden floor and struck Nenita Fernan, 33, who was sleeping on a mat on the ground floor of the home she shared with the policeman in Pook Dela Paz in Barangay Old Balara, Quezon City, said case investigator PO3 Loreto Tigno.

He said that with the help of neighbors who heard the shot, Gardon rushed his wife, who was hit in the stomach, to the East Avenue Medical Center but the woman died on the way.

Tigno said the filing of charges against the policeman would depend on whether relatives of Fernan would press charges.

Gardon, who is assigned to the Makati City police, told investigators that he was about to leave for work about 5:30 p.m. Friday when the accident happened.

He said he was unloading his service firearm, a 9-mm Beretta pistol, when it accidentally fired.

“He made a grave mistake while doing so,” Tigno said, explaining that Gardon, finding that a bullet was still in its chamber, cocked the weapon. He forgot, however, to remove the loaded magazine, so that even when he succeeded in taking the bullet out of the chamber, another bullet moved in from the magazine, Tigno said.

Thus, when Gardon pulled the trigger, the gun fired, to the policeman’s surprise, Tigno said.