Cops checking drug users’ homes end up killing Awol cop

A POLICEMAN who had not reported for duty since February last year was shot dead Sunday night by fellow officers who were implementing a campaign meant to convince drug suspects to surrender in Quezon City.

Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, the director of the Quezon City Police District, said PO2 Ariel Arnaiz fired at the team who knocked on the door of his house at No. 45 Virginia Drive, Rodriguez Subdivision in Barangay Baesa.

This prompted the team members to shoot back, killing Arnaiz, he said.

The team, who came from the QCPD-Talipapa station, was then in Baesa to check on the homes of known drug users in the area, Eleazar said.

The officers were there for Oplan KaPak (Katok Pakiusap), a recently launched campaign to convince drug users and pushers to surrender. Other police units in various cities have launched their own versions of the drive.

According to Eleazar, Arnaiz had gone absent without leave (Awol) since February 2015. He was once assigned to QCPD-Station 8 in Project 4 and later transferred to the National Capital Region Police Office’s Administrative Holding Unit. Maricar B. Brizuela