Bullet in P’que riot may not be from cop

The bullet which killed a resident of Silverio Compound in Parañaque City may not have come from a gun wielded by a policeman.

This was the finding of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) based on the results of an autopsy conducted on Arnel Leonor, the lone fatality in Monday’s violent clash between residents of Silverio Compound in Parañaque City and policemen providing security to a demolition team.

Leonor died of a lone gunshot wound in the head, with the bullet entering through his forehead and exiting through the back of his head.

According to NBI medico-legal division chief Alvin David who conducted the autopsy, based on the size of the entrance and exit wounds, the bullet came from either a .38-caliber or 9 mm handgun.

At the same time, he dismissed the possibility that the gunshot wound may have been caused by an M-16 rifle, the weapon issued to members of the Special Weapons and Tactics unit deployed in Silverio Compound on Monday.

“The gunshot [wound is] not consistent with [that caused by] high-powered firearms. A high-powered firearm would have caused massive tissue damage and [created] an entrance wound that is small, with a larger exit wound,” David pointed out in a phone interview.

He said that in Leonor’s case, the exit wound was so small, it resembled a gash.

Reenactment set

He added that the victim was shot by someone standing to his left, less than two feet away.  “The entrance wound had no smudging, no splitting, no tattooing, no signs that the shot was effected closer than 24 inches,” David said.

The NBI was expected to conduct a reenactment of Monday’s events at the crime scene to determine where the bullet that killed Leonor came from.

For his part, Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo said that one of the residents arrested by the police following Monday’s clash had tested positive for gun nitrates, raising the possibility that the shooter could have come from the ranks of the protesters.

The resident was identified as Vic Etrata.

Robredo added, however, that the investigation was by no means complete and that probers were not discounting the angle that the police may have been responsible for Leonor’s death.

“What [is] clear in the Parañaque incident [is that] it was not the police who started the fight. [Those who] started the violence were those who carried molotov bombs and threw rocks …” he said.

According to him, he believed that the firing of warning shots was justified as it served as a deterrent to troublemakers at that time.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Congress will be conducting separate investigations of Monday’s clash which left Leonor dead and at least 39 other people injured.

Speaking with reporters, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she had issued a memorandum order directing the National Prosecution Service (NPS) of the DOJ and NBI to gather evidence and determine the events which led to the violent protest.

Conflicting versions

“I have ordered NPS-DOJ and the NBI to determine … who should be charged because we’re hearing conflicting versions [of the incident from the police and the other people involved],” she said in an interview.

She also took note of the autopsy results released by the NBI which showed that the bullet that killed Leonor came from either a 9 mm or .38-cal. pistol.

“So (the bullet possibly) did not come from an M-16 rifle which the (policemen) used … It would appear that it did not come from them. If that is true, then where did the bullet come from? Who fired the gun?” De Lima asked.

In Congress, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said that he would summon Robredo, Philippine National Police chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome and Parañaque Mayor Florencio Bernabe Jr. to shed light on the incident.

According to Casiño, Robredo should take greater responsibility for the bloody confrontation which led to the death of one of the residents, considering that he was the main conduit between Bernabe and Bartolome in coordinating police action in the area.

“The Department of the Interior and Local Government could have done more to avert the clash, considering this had been brewing for some time and that there had been similar experiences in the past,” he said in a text message. With Marlon Ramos and Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.