Antipolo police capture suspected gunman in cop’s slay

Crispin Corpin, the gunman in the killing of Police Officer 3 Don Carlo Mangui. Photo by Johanna Ballaran

One of the suspects in the murder of a police officer in Antipolo City has been arrested by authorities, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Dir. Gen. Oscar D. Albayalde said on Wednesday.

Albayalde said the Antipolo City Police arrested Crispin Corpin, the gunman in the killing of Police Officer 3 Don Carlo Mangui, in a follow-up operation in Barangay San Isidro on Tuesday morning.

Mangui, assigned at the Crime Laboratory Headquarters in Camp Crame, was attacked around 1:45 a.m. Sunday in front of his family’s old home at Chico St., Purok Sumulong in Barangay Dela Paz.

Police said the 32-year-old policeman, a resident of Teresa town in Rizal, was visiting the house when his friends invited him to join their drinking session.

Corpin and two other suspects, identified as Archie Calagday Casas alias Jovan; and Alvin Dolim, later on appeared behind Mangui and shot him to the head, instantly killing him.

The suspects immediately fled the scene and headed towards Padilla district. Upon reaching Marcos Highway, Corpin fired at two men riding a motorcycle, one of the riders was hit in the cheek.

The wounded motorcycle-rider was immediately rushed to a hospital, and eventually survived.

Corpin would be facing murder, as well as frustrated and attempted murder charges, said Region 4A police director Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar.

Casas and Dolim, however, were still at large.

Eleazar said Corpin was positively identified by Mangui’s wife and one of the riders through the suspect’s tattoos and clothes.

The regional police chief said around six to seven people plotted Mangui’s murder, thinking the victim was a tipster of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) following a series of drug raids conducted in the area.

The latest of which was on May 17, when joint units of the PNP and PDEA raided Mangui’s neighborhood, arresting 82 people with 36 of them found positive for illegal drugs, Eleazar said.

“At pinaghihinalaan na itong si PO3 Mangui ang nagbibigay ng impormasyon sa PDEA for the series of operations na meron dun. ‘Yun ang motibong nakikita natin dito,” he added.

(They were suspecting that PO3 Mangui gave the information to PDEA for the series of operations there. That’s the motive we are looking at now.)

Corpin had been out of jail twice for trespassing and homicide, according to police.             /kga