Cop on AWOL on rob suspicion shot, killed in Isabela on Easter Sunday

CAUAYAN CITY – A 37-year-old police lieutenant, who had been absent without leave after being implicated in a March 29 robbery, was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding men on Easter Sunday (April 12).

Lt. Oliver Tolentino was attacked as he sat in front of the house of his sister at the village of San Fermin past noon.

Wounded in the head and torso, Tolentino was brought to the Dr. Ester Garcia Medical Center where he was declared dead on arrival.

A member of the police’s Cagayan Valley Personnel Holding Area Unit in this city, Tolentino had been accused of leading the robbery of a gasoline trader in Reina Mercedes town.

Accompanied by two other unidentified suspects, Tolentino supposedly robbed Michael Etrata at 7:45 p.m. Police said Tolentino owns the escape vehicle that was flagged down by the police chief of Reina Mercedes at a checkpoint there.

The driver of the vehicle reportedly accelerated when he was asked to show his identification card. The police chased after the car, which rammed through the checkpoint barricade of Cauayan’s Tagaran village at 10:20 p.m., prompting the police to fire at the vehicle’s tires.

The vehicle’s three occupants managed to flee and hide but forensic investigators found a caliber 38 revolver with three rounds of ammunition, police uniforms and identification cards, and other belongings that led to the policeman.

Before the gun attack by the motorcycle-riding hit men, police managed to charge Tolentino with illegal possession of firearms, resistance and disobedience to a person of public authority and violating the COVID-19 quarantine.

Edited by TSB