Court orders arrest of cop in killing of Norwegian

MANILA, Philippines—A Quezon City court has ordered the arrest of a Manila policeman accused of murdering a Norwegian national after a bar brawl last July.

Judge Henri Jean-Paul Inting of the Regional Trial Court Branch 95 issued an arrest warrant for Police Officer 1 Harold Meneses for allegedly shooting Mikael Troy Rasay, 18, in the wee hours of July 31, the same day he was to fly home to Norway.

Meneses, whose last assignment was with the Tondo police station, had sent surrender feelers after the killing but he never gave himself up.

Rasay, a Filipino-Norwegian, was allegedly chased and shot from behind by the policeman after the teenager tried to mediate in a brawl in front of a bar on Timog Avenue in Barangay South Triangle.

The court ordered Meneses’s arrest for the crime of murder, a no-bail offense under the Revised Penal Code.

Police investigation showed that only Meneses had checked in a firearm with the security of the Excess Bar before the shooting.

The policeman was also identified by witnesses who clearly saw the face of the suspect who shot Rasay.