Cop kills cop in Caloocan street brawl

MANILA, Philippines - An off-duty police officer was shot dead when he reportedly intervened in a street melee involving another policeman early morning yesterday in Caloocan City.

Police Officer 2 Rex Azusano, 31, assigned to the Caloocan City police station Tactical Operation Center, died on the spot from seven bullet wounds in the body.

Senior Inspector Ronald Perilla, Caloocan City police station intelligence and investigation branch chief, said the suspect, Police Officer 1 Stephen Hernandez, of the Quezon City Police District mobile patrol unit, escaped.

Perilla said Azusano was riding on his motorcycle with a friend John Schmidt, a security guard, on his way home when they passed by a commotion along MacArthur Highway near Monumento at around 2:30 a.m.

Azusano stopped and introduced himself as a police officer to one of the alleged troublemakers, but instead of heeding him the man pulled a handgun and fired at the policeman and his companion.

Azusano was hit seven times in the right side of the body while Schmidt was wounded in the back, Perilla said.

The victims were brought to the Manila Central University Hospital where Azusano was declared dead on arrival while Schmidt underwent treatment.

“Despite his wound, our policeman shot back at the suspect and hit him in the body but the gunman was able to flee aboard a motorcycle with an unidentified companion,” Perilla told The STAR.

He said they were able to identify the suspect as a member of the QCPD mobile patrol unit but failed to arrest him “as his superior refused to cooperate with us.”

The Caloocan City police gathered that Hernandez was brought to the Quezon City General Hospital but when Perilla’s men checked there, the suspect had already transferred to another hospital.

Another version

Hernandez, however, gave another version of the incident.

He said he was shot by the policemen following a traffic altercation.

Hernandez remains confined at QMMC for a gunshot wound in the abdomen that he sustained from the incident.

Superintendent Lino Banaag, head of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said Hernandez, who was also off-duty during the incident, was driving his motorcycle when the motorcycle carrying the two suspects, who were from the opposite direction and did a counter-flow, sideswiped him.

Hernandez claimed the suspects, who appeared drunk, got angry. One of them got off the motorcycle, confronted Hernandez and introduced himself as a member of the Caloocan City police.

Hernandez, in turn, introduced himself as a policeman and thought the incident was over after their discussion. But as he was about to drive away, he was whipped with a pistol in the head and shot.

Banaag said the victim managed to pull out his gun and fired back. He ran away, hailed a taxicab and brought himself to Quezon City General Hospital and was later transferred to QMMC.

Banaag said it could be that the suspects were involved in a robbery and were fleeing and that one of the suspects shot Hernandez because they thought the policeman would arrest them.