Teenager killed in Cavite shootout with cops

CAMP GEN. PANTALEON GARCIA, IMUS, Cavite – A jobless teenager was reported killed on Sunday afternoon when he traded shots with police in an anti-drug operation in Barangay 48-A, Cavite City, the Police Provincial Office (PPO) reported on Monday, October 8.

Jordan Pastrana Bernal Jr., 18, a resident of Barangay 36-M, Cavite City, suffered bullet wounds in the body and was declared dead on arrival at Bautista Hospital in Cavite City.

A police report showed that Bernal, single, had just turned 18 last October 6.

PO1 Jumar Bedural, case investigator, reported that the shootout happened after Bernal resisted arrest and fired at Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) agents in a police operation at 2:15 p.m. Sunday.

Recovered from Bernal were a .45 cal. pistol with a magazine loaded with five live bullets and a pouch containing two small sachets with suspected shabu, several plastic sachets, a crumpled aluminum foil, a lighter and P300 cash.

Supt. Francisco Jarcia Luceña III, Cavite City Police officer-in-charge, had dispatched the DEU team, led by Sr. Insp. Gilbert H. Derla to conduct the operation against the drug suspect.

The Cavite PPO-DEU Monitoring Center said that Bernal was the 58th resisting drug suspect killed in encounters with police in the lowland and upland districts of the province. The number of anti-drug operation fatalities covered the period from Jan. 1 to Oct. 7 this year.

Among the drug-watched areas in the province as gleaned from the number of drug arrests and encounters are the districts of Dasmarinas and Bacoor, General Trias City, Cavite City, and the municipalities of Tanza and Silang.