Cop pacifying melee wounded

A rookie police officer is spending his Christmas in a hospital bed after he was shot and seriously wounded when he tried to break up a street fight Saturday night in Malabon City.

PO1 Melvin Viray, 23, detailed at Malabon City police Sub-station 3, is recuperating from a gunshot wound in the left buttocks.

According to PO3 Rhoderick Cruz, of the Northern Police District-Tactical Operation Center, Viray was on his way to work in Barangay Longos when he saw a commotion on C-4 Road at around 10:45 p.m.

Viray got off his motorcycle and intervened in the melee, trying to pacify an unruly crowd.

But instead a troublemaker armed with a gun shot Viray. The attacker then fled on foot towards a nearby squatter colony.

PO1 Ricardo Cuevas, who was also on his way to work, later saw the commotion and saved Viray from possible further harm. Cuevas rushed Viray to the hospital.

The Malabon City police is currently tracking down Viray’s attacker. – Pete Laude