Manila cops: Escapee ‘drowned’ in Pasig River

Another one “grabbed the gun” and turned up dead.

The body of a Manila Police District (MPD) detainee, who reportedly jumped into the Pasig River on Wednesday night after an attempt to disarm his security escort while on the road, was fished out of the water on Good Friday.

Angelito Aviles, 32, alias “Minandro Velasco” of the Batang City Jail gang, “drowned” after escaping MPD custody, according to PO3 Bernardo Cayabyab of the homicide section.

The suspect’s death was the latest in a series of incidents over the past few months concerning MPD detainees reportedly grabbing their escort’s gun in a bid to escape. In the previous cases, the suspects were eventually shot dead by police, in a seeming pattern that raised questions from the Commission on Human Rights.

Aviles and his alleged cohort Richard Martinez, both Quiapo residents, were arrested earlier on Wednesday for allegedly robbing four women at knifepoint, taking their mobile phones worth P16,000 and earrings worth P9,000.

After being booked for robbery and illegal possession of deadly weapons, the suspects were brought by PO1s Edrin Paterno and Reymond Gutierrez to Jose Abad Santos General Hospital for the standard medical checkup at around 9 p.m. The police escorts each drove a motorcycle which had the handcuffed suspects as passengers.

On their way to the MPD’s Sta. Cruz station, Aviles “somehow” managed to free his left hand and reach for Gutierrez’s 9 mm pistol as they passed along Muelle del Industria in Binondo, according to Cayabyab.

With Gutierrez losing control of the motorcycle, he and Aviles were thrown off the vehicle, still grappling for the gun, which accidentally went off. When Gutierrez got his pistol back, Aviles ran and jumped into the Pasig River.

Aviles’s body turned up near the San Miguel wharf on Friday morning and was fished out of the water by Coast Guard personnel.

Aviles was earlier arrested on March 4 for a string of robbery cases. He was out on bail when arrested again on Wednesday.