Boy, 4, mom wounded in drug bust that turned into hostage situation
Credit to Author: clopez| Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2019 12:12:11 +0000
SAN PEDRO CITY—A four-year-old boy and his mother were wounded when police shot dead a suspected pusher who had held civilians hostage in Lipa City in Batangas province.
The shooting happened on Thursday (July 11) yet but details started coming out only on Saturday (July 13).
It drew parallels with the police operation that led to the killing of three-year-old girl Myca Ulpina in the town of Rodriguez in Rizal province on June 19.
Police in Batangas said the suspect, Christopher Javier, had also used civilians as “human shields” in an attempt to flee a buy-bust operation.
Col. Edwin Quilates, Batangas police chief, said in a phone interview that there was no basis to compare what happened in Lipa City with that of the police operation in Rodriguez, Rizal.
He said police exercised extreme caution when the operation against Javier turned into a hostage situation.
He said the wounds suffered by the woman and her child were superficial. They were just “grazed” by bullets—the woman on the back and the child on the arm, said Quilates.
The woman executed an affidavit pointing to the dead suspect as the one who fired the gun that led to her and her child’s wounding.
Quilates said police were in pursuit of Javier at the village of Poblacion 1 to carry out a drug bust operation.
Lt. Col. Jack Angog, chief of the Tanauan City police which was involved in the operation, said Javier tried to flee on his motorcycle after sensing he was being set up for a buy-bust and sped off toward the town of Sto. Tomas.
In Sto. Tomas, Angog said he entered a motel and briefly met with a woman believed to be Javier’s girlfriend. Angog said police waited for Javier to surrender but the suspect instead fled to a relative’s house at the village of Inosluban in Lipa.
Javier, according to police, took hostage the woman and her child and his aunt to prevent police from cornering him.
The woman taken hostage, Angog said, had been pleading to Javier to surrender.
Quilates said Javier fired shots as he dragged the womanr, who was then carrying her child, and hit MSgt Dante Robles. Robles was unhurt as he was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
The standoff lasted for about 15 minutes, Angog said.
Quilates said the policemen took their chance at shooting Javier when he had accidentally let the hostages go.
Javier was rushed to the Metro Lipa Medical Center but was declared dead on arrival.
Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, former national police chief, had said the killing of the three-year-old girl in Rodriguez just showed that “shit happens” during police operations. He later apologized for the term and vowed to start an investigation. /tsb