Cebu City cop faces probe for pistol-grabbing incident

A POLICEMAN will be investigated after his firearm was grabbed by a security guard who allegedly tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the mouth inside the  Sawang Calero precinct in  Cebu City.

PO2 Antonio Tejero’s conduct will be the subject of an inquiry to check whether there were lapses on his part, said Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, chief of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).

Buenafe said the  incident was a bizarre case.

“Sometimes we cannot read the mind of a person,” said Buenafe.

The security guard is still confined  at the Cebu Doctor’s Hospital with a gunshot wound in the jaw and a bullet embedded in his nape.

Chief Insp. Bonifacio Garciano, chief of the CCPO’s Criminal Investigation and Detective Management Branch (CIDMB), said they were still waiting for the security guard  to fully recuperate to get his side of the incident.

Lawyer  Santiago Ortiz Jr. went to the CCPO yesterday to inquire about the incident. He introduced himself as a distant relative of the security guard, said SPO1 Ruth Violango, homicide investigator.

According to police, Tejero arrived at the police station at 10:45 a.m. last Monday and entered the Intelligence Section room where the security guard was resting.

Tejero was about to place his motorcycle helmet on a table when the security guard grabbed his gun.

There was a  scuffle for the gun and the guard got hold of the weapon, cocked it, pointed it at his mouth and fired, said Tejero.

Police said the security guard was turned over to the station by a friend after he tried to jump off a bridge at the South Road Properties last Saturday.

Police said they didn’t know what problem was bothering him./CORRESPONDENT CHITO O. ARAGON