Cop shoots driver, slams into gate while fleeing

MANILA, Philippines – A police officer who reportedly shot a jeepney driver in the head during a traffic altercation in Caloocan City Sunday night smashed his motorcycle into a subdivision gate in Malabon City while escaping.

Police Officer 2 Oliver Henson, 29, assigned at the Caloocan City Police Community Precinct 1 in Bagong Barrio, was listed in critical condition yesterday at the Manila Central University Hospital due to head and body injuries.

Jeepney driver Jodan Magno, 24, who sustained a gunshot wound in the left temple, is also fighting for his life in the same hospital.

Barangay 152 watchman Joevert Lopez, 27, told Chief Inspector Rodrigo Soriano, Caloocan City police investigation chief, that he was manning his post at the corner of Milagrosa and Reparo streets in Bagong Barrio when the jeepney driven by Magno hit Henson’s motorcycle.

Lopez said that the policeman, who was apparently drunk, pulled his 9mm pistol and pointed it at Magno’s head while hurling invectives at the driver, but his pistol’s magazine dropped to the pavement.

The policeman then ordered Lopez to pick up the magazine and the bullets. He reloaded his pistol and shot Magno in the head.

Henson fled on his motorcycle but he hit the steel gate of the adjacent Araneta Subdivision in Barangay Potrero in Malabon City.

“Henson sustained massive head injuries, for he was not wearing a helmet. He was off duty,” Soriano told The STAR.

Soriano said city police chief Senior Superintendent Jude Santos ordered a thorough investigation of the case and sanctioned Henson’s immediate superior for allowing his personnel to take a day off despite a policy that all Caloocan police officers must be on duty on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

“These are the days that most of the crimes occur, so we have a standing order that our police personnel must not take a day off on these days,” Soriano said.