Number of bullets used ‘shows cops intended to kill Quiamco’
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) 7 Director Arvin Odron said they presumed that police intended to kill alleged big-time drug personality PO3 Ryan Martus Quiamco, after learning that the vehicle the police officer was driving was peppered with more than 40 bullets.
“We can say with the number of bullets, intent to kill is presumed. Forty bullets coming from several police officers, it’s strafing,” he told reporters yesterday.
The Crime Laboratory investigators found 41 bullet entry points and 11 exit points in the black pickup truck.
He said a subpoena was sent to the Regional Special Operations Group, the unit under Regional Intelligence Division (RID) 7 that led the drug bust against Quiamco last Aug. 15 in Barangay Pooc, Talisay City.
Odron said that their initial investigation showed that Quiamco engaged the operatives while he was driving his vehicle.
“They have the authority to pursue because there was an actual exchange of gunfire and they were not able to identify, initially, the other occupants,” he said.
He said police officers pursuing suspects are authorized to use their firearms to protect themselves.
“But the question is, kon na-immobilize na ang suspect, wala nay risk on the part of the police or sa law enforcement, unya duolon nila, pusilon pa nila, those are unnecessary wounds nga ilang gi-inflict, and that would constitute an overkill,” he said.
Odron said it would be difficult to establish if there was an overkill since it was a running gunbattle.
Police Regional Office 7 Director Jose Mario Espino said the operation was legitimate and he will wait for the investigation’s result.
Quiamco engaged RID 7 operatives in a gunbattle, resulting in his death in Pooc. His wife Rizalyn, who was pregnant, also died.
The slain officer’s name first surfaced after a concerned citizen wrote to former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Arturo Cacdac Jr. in November 2014.