BANGUED, Abra – The suspect in the stray bullet incident during the New Year revelry that caused the untimely death of an 11-year old Grade IV pupil from barangay Bumagcat, Tayum town will be facing homicide and alarm and scandal charges aggravated by the use of an unlicensed firearm before the provincial prosecutor’s office soon, Senior Superintendent Albertlito S. Gracia, director of the Abra provincial police office, said here.
Garcia said law enforcers were able to complete the ground work in their investigation process and were able to reduce the possible suspects to a minimal level after the elimination process and they are now zeroing in on possible suspects from adjacent barangays who wilfully fired their unlicensed guns to celebrate the new year.
“We are now on the final stages of our investigation and we were able to pinpoint the suspect although we have yet to withhold his identity prior to the filing of the necessary charges against him anytime soon,” Garcia stressed.
He initially identified the suspect as Henry Trinidad Tejero, of legal age a driver who was identified by their witnesses as the one who fired his unlicensed firearm during the new year revelry.
According to him, the eight individuals, including the victim’s father, who were subjected to paraffin test by the local police force turned out negative of having fired their firearms while the .45 caliber pistol of Vice Mayor Bienvenido Dion, Jr., who earlier surrender his firearm to the police for ballistic test, also turned out to be negative of being fired.
Garcia added the their four witnesses to the incident were subjected to the rigid polygraph test in order to ascertain their credibility before probers accepted their testimony pointing to the possible suspect as the one responsible for the untimely death of the innocent young girl.
Furthermore, he added the testimonies of the witnesses was corroborated by the results of the trajectory investigation conducted by the police in the crime scene and within the vicinity of the place where the incident happened.
Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin commended the unrelenting efforts of the local police force in trying to locate the suspect in the untimely death of the Grade IV pupil, saying that there should be no stone that will be left unturned in the investigation so that the culprit will be made to suffer the consequence of his act.
“We will continue to extend our utmost support to the police to ensure that lasting peace in the province could be achieved in the future. We will not allow similar incidents to happen in the future,” Bersamin said.
It can be recalled that the victim, together with the members of her family, were standing outside their residence to watch the colourful fireworks display in their neighbourhood while awaiting the coming of the new year when she suddenly collapsed and fell on the ground with blood oozing from her head.
The victim was immediately rushed to the Abra provincial hospital for medical treatment but expired while undergoing medical supervision. A slug of a calibre .45 pistol was recovered by attending physicians from the victim’s head and was used as one of the pieces of evidence in the trajectory investigation of law enforcers that served as one of the initial stages of investigation to ascertain whose firearm was used in the incident. By Dexter A. See
