Teenage girl, friend shot dead by cop

A bar brawl that spilled out into the street led to the death of a 16-year-old girl and her friend after they were shot on Sunday morning in Malate, Manila, by a policeman who claimed self-defense.

Camille Ventura, a high school student, and Emerson Lopez, 20, died of gunshot wounds to the chest. Both were from Pasay City. Their companion, 18-year-old Carl Michael Cueto, suffered a gunshot wound in the abdomen and was taken to Ospital ng Maynila for treatment.

The three were shot after they and their friends attacked five men—one of them a policeman—whom they mistook for the group they had gotten into a fight with earlier.

The policeman who shot them was identified as PO3 Ariel Yala, a member of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City. He defended his action, telling probers he was forced to fire his gun in self-defense.

Initial police investigation disclosed that Ventura was with 10 other friends when they got into a fight with another group inside a bar at Harbor Square in Malate, Manila. The victim and her companions were later escorted out of the establishment by its security personnel to prevent any more trouble.

Instead of going home, however, Ventura’s group hung out at a gasoline station on A. Mabini corner P. Ocampo Streets around 4:30 a.m. to wait for the people they had encountered inside the bar, according to case investigator SPO3 Glenzor Vallejo.

Vallejo said that by chance, Yala and his companions passed by the area in a taxi cab. When Ventura’s group spotted them, they mistook them for the ones they were after.

The victim and her friends chased the cab, opened its doors when it stopped for a red light at an intersection and started attacking the five passengers inside the vehicle.

Taxi driver Henry Coralde told police investigators that as his passengers were being mauled inside his cab, he heard a gun being fired behind him.

The case prober said that based on their investigation and questioning of the persons involved in the incident, Yala, a member of the NCRPO’s Logistics Support Service, fired his 9mm firearm after he felt that his group was outnumbered by their attackers.

The policeman said that the mauling took them by surprise and that it was the first time he and his companions encountered Ventura and her group.

Yala told investigators that he  and his friends Gene Hope Cainglet, Rey Chris Saavedra, Jordan Tuilo and Agnes Penaflor had boarded the taxi on A. Mabini Street in front of a restaurant after a get-together. His information was confirmed by the taxi driver.

Investigators said that Ventura and Lopez were rushed by their companions to Manila Adventist Medical Center (formerly Manila Sanitarium Hospital) in Pasay City where they were declared dead on arrival.

Yala and his four companions, on the other hand, were placed under investigation by Malate policemen.