Agent down as gun, liquor mix at NBI birthday party

Another fodder for the raging debate on whether guns, even the licensed ones, are really in the right hands in the country.

An agent of the National Bureau of Investigation shot and wounded a colleague Friday night during a birthday party inside the NBI headquarters in Manila.

An initial investigation showed that agent Nestor Pascual of the NBI’s National Capital Region office fired a .40-cal. pistol, which he had just reloaded, at special investigator Joselito Guillen of the bureau’s intelligence division.

The shooting happened around 9 p.m. during a party being held for another agent at the NBI-NCR office.

Pascual remained in detention at the NBI jail on Saturday after being charged with frustrated homicide in the city prosecutor’s office.

Guillen sustained four gunshot wounds and was declared in stable condition at Manila Doctors Hospital.

Hard liquor served

Witnesses said the birthday party was in full swing, with hard liquor being served, when Guillen arrived and saw an apparently drunk Pascual “playing” with his government-issued pistol.

“The victim was afraid that an accident might happen with the suspect playing with the firearm. He ‘borrowed’ the suspect’s gun, removed the magazine and returned the gun to the suspect,” one of the witnesses told the Inquirer.

But Pascual, who was carrying a spare magazine, reloaded the gun and fired at the victim four times.

“The suspect later claimed that he thought the victim had tried to shoot him,” the witness said.

Other agents expressed disappointment over the incident. “This is an isolated case. Drinking hard liquor inside the building is actually prohibited and incidents like these tarnish the good image that the bureau has been trying hard to build,” one of them said.