Cop accidentally shoots fellow lawman inside car

AGNO, Pangasinan , Philippines   – A policeman was accidentally shot by his colleague with an M14 rifle on Monday at 4 p.m. after refueling at a gasoline station in Poblacion East here.

Based on the report of Inspector Wilfredo Cabanayan, the police chief, to Senior Superintendent Percival Barba, police provincial director, he said that while their vehicle moved about five meters away from the gas station, a gunshot rang out inside their patrol car.

This shocked Cabanayan and it was then that he found out the victim, PO3 Joseph Abongan, the driver, partially raised his right hand and said “Sir, adda tamak (I was shot).”

Abongan, 34, married and resident of San Vicente, Alaminos City was injured at the lower back portion of his right armpit.

Cabanayan’s other companions, SPO2 Lucito Regaspi, PO1 Jose Mandi III and PO1 Gonzales Cortez rushed the victim to a clinic here and later transferred him to Bolaney Doctors Hospital in Alaminos City. However, Abongan died while undergoing treatment. 

Prior to rushing the victim to the clinic, the police chief asked Cortez who was at the trunk of the vehicle and what had happened. Cortez replied the car jolted when it moved ahead on the elevated shoulder of the concrete main road which has about two to three-inch raised gap from the shoulder.

When an ocular examination was made by the police, they found out that the PNP patrol car incurred shattered portion on the top edge of the plastic seat cover where Cortez was seated, bullet hole on the two flat sheet division of the trunk and cab and a wide bullet hole on the right back portion of the driver’s seat. 

A case of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide has been filed against Cortez. The suspect remains in the custody of the local police station.

Paraffin test on Cortez and the ballistics examination of the involved firearm were already requested from the PNP Crime Laboratory Service in Lingayen, Cabanayan said in his report.  – Eva Visperas