Cops seize grenade from homeless man

PASAY police chief Senior Supt. Rodolfo Llorca shows the MK2 fragmentation grenade seized from Bernato Daria, a homeless man, who was accosted for urinating in public. Daria, however, claims the grenade was planted by the policemen who arrested him. RICHARD A. REYES

A homeless man who was initially accosted by the police for urinating in public in Pasay City ended up in more trouble after a grenade was found in his possession.

According to one of the arresting officers, Police Officer 2 Frelie Llamelo, they accosted Bernato Daria, 28, for urinating on the stretch of Edsa corner M. de la Cruz Street.  When the policemen frisked Daria, they found the MK2 fragmentation grenade in the left pocket of his shorts.

Daria, however, claimed that the grenade was planted by the policemen to legitimize his arrest. He said that he himself went to the police station after a spat with his mother and asked them to arrest him. “I was so overburdened with a lot of financial and family problems that I thought spending time here [in jail would help me clear up my mind,” he added.