A 27-year-old Manila policeman who was only trying to pacify his quarreling neighbors ended up being shot dead by one of them early Saturday.
Before he was killed, PO1 Kirk Alwyn Gonzales was sleeping at his rented room on Balagtas Street, Malate, when another neighbor woke him up and sought his help around 2:30 a.m. about a commotion outside.
Gonzales, an antidrug operative who reported to the Manila Police District’s Malate station, went out and found a man and a woman having a fight, according to his station commander, Supt. Romeo Odrada.
Gonzales managed to calm down Girly Espinosa Espiritu, 33, and her former live-in partner Eli Matthan Sumampong, 37, and prevented “a physical confrontation” between the two, Odrada said.
Thinking that the fight was over, the officer decided to walk back to his room, unaware that a gun-toting Sumampong followed him.
As Gonzales was about to enter a hallway leading to his room, Sumampong shot and killed him on the spot.
Sumampong, who owns a boarding house in the area, fled in a black Toyota Rav 4 (UPI 969), taking his weapon with him, Odrada said.
The MPD has launched a manhunt against Sumampong.