Pasig school shooting: Cop slain by ‘friendly fire’

MANILA, Philippines - A policeman who was killed while responding to trouble at a school in Pasig City Saturday was felled by “friendly fire,” an official said yesterday.

Pasig police chief Mario Rariza said he placed under his custody two policemen whom witnesses attest and closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage show shot at Senior Police Officer 1 Fernan Clemente.

Rariza withheld the names of the two erring policemen pending the filing of appropriate charges against them before the Pasig prosecutor’s office today.

He claimed that one of the policemen with the rank of Police Officer 2 was armed with an Armalite rifle and assigned at the police community precinct in Barangay Pinagbuhatan while his companion is a Police Officer 1, armed with a 9mm pistol and assigned at the PCP in Barangay Palatiw.

Both policemen claimed they mistook Clemente as the troublemaker as he was holding a gun while rushing out of the school gate in civilian clothes.

According to Rariza, the CCTV camera of the school showed the two policemen firing at Clemente, whose gun was pointed toward the ground.

He vowed that there would be no whitewash in their investigation of the case as policemen are involved. “Let the ax fall where it may. I’m saddened by the incident but justice must take its course,” Rariza said.

52 gunshot wounds

The autopsy report showed that Clemente sustained 52 gunshot wounds in the body, seven of them fatal, said Rariza.

“He was hit by shotgun pellets but the seven from the 9mm pistol proved fatal. We are still determining whether the victim was shot by an Armalite rifle,” he added.

Clemente was playing basketball near the St. Gabriel International School along Sandoval Avenue at about 8:30 a.m. when security guards of the school asked him to assist them to pacify Emerson Aries Go.

Go, reportedly the son of the school owner, arrived at the school in a taxicab. He was carrying a shotgun and creating trouble.

Rariza said that as Clemente was approaching Go, the suspect allegedly opened fire with the shotgun. Although hit in the face and other parts of the body, Clemente was able to pull out his handgun and fired as he rushed out of the school’s gate, Rariza said.

“It was cover fire aimed to prevent Go from pursuing him,” said Rariza, noting that the two bullet shells recovered at the school gate’s came from Clemente’s cover fire.

It was at this juncture that the two rookie policemen, who were summoned by concerned residents, arrived.

Rariza said Go was the same person who held hostage his mother and two nephews in the school in December 2012. Go surrendered after several hours of negotiation.

Go’s family refused to file charges against him, prompting Rariza to initiate his one-year drug rehabilitation.

Rariza said Go was arrested and will be charged along with the two policemen for Clemente’s death.