Cop arrested for firing gun at rowdy drinking session

MANILA, Philippines—A rookie policeman was arrested early Wednesday for firing his gun after a neighbor asked him and his buddies to tone down the ruckus they were making during a drinking binge on the courtyard of a townhouse in Quezon City way past midnight Tuesday.

Superintendent  Ramon Pranada, who led the arresting party from the Cubao police station, said Police Officer 1 Charlton Custodio, 27, assigned to the Highway Patrol Group, was identified by neighbor Judith Mateo as the one who fired the gun.  No one was reported injured.

Pranada said Custodio faces charges of making threats as well as alarm and scandal.

He said both Custodio and Mateo, 67, are nextdoor neighbors at a townhouse at Parkwood Villas, Barangay Bagong Lipunan in Crame.

According to Pranada, Mateo complained that the policeman and his friends were having a rowdy drinking session on the courtyard that started Tuesday night and was continuing past midnight, so she asked the group to keep the noise down.

The rebuke apparently angered Custodio, Paranada said, adding, “Custodio supposedly pulled out his service gun, cocked it and fired it in front of Mateo.”

Other neighbors then called up the police hotline number 117 for help.

But when policemen arrived, the group of drunken men was nowhere to be found.

Policemen later found Custodio inside his townhouse unit and invited him to the Cubao police station.

Mateo later identified the rookie as the one who fired a gun in front of her, Pranada said.