A policewoman married to another police officer has surrendered to the station nearest their Quezon City residence, saying she accidentally shot her husband dead in a domestic quarrel shortly after midnight Wednesday.
PO1 Gemalyn Verbo, 34, who reports to the Quezon City Police District’s Fairview station, turned herself in shortly after her husband and fellow QCPD member, PO1 George Verbo, died in a hospital from a gunshot wound.
Saying she had been a battered wife, Gemalyn claimed they had another fight the previous night during which he tried to forcibly take her service pistol, according to Supt. Eleazar Matta, commander of the Batasan Hills station where she surrendered.
“The husband had no gun of his own because he was under preventive suspension for an administrative case and was disarmed,” Matta explained.
The couple had been married for 10 years, during which the policeman had become abusive, beating her up and sometimes taking her 9mm pistol outside the house as though it was his, especially whenever he was drunk, Matta said. The couple had three children.
Around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, their last of many quarrels started indoors and ended in a gunshot outside on a compound on Sampaguita Extension, Payatas A, where the couple lived, according to a report from the QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.
Prior to the incident, George was having a drink with his brother-in-law Gaylord Maborang when Gemalyn arrived and admonished him for being drunk again.
In the ensuing argument, George tried to grab his wife’s bag containing the gun, but Gemalyn wouldn’t let go and rushed outside the house. George chased her and, ignoring pleas from their housemaid, started punching her.
George again tried to take the gun but it went off in the scuffle, hitting him in the stomach.
According to Matta, George was about to be returned to active duty when the incident happened. Gemalyn was turned over to QCPD-CIDU’s custody and would be charged with parricide, he said.