Wednesday, September 01, 2004 Let Dumpit out to teach cops how to shoot, mayor suggests
IF CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña had his way, PO3 Adonis Dumpit would be released from jail while awaiting trial, so he can help in the training of policemen.
“My recommendation is to bring Dumpit into active service but as an instructor for the policemen because he is one of the best shooters in the police department and I don’t want to see him not being productive there,” Osmeña said.
The mayor already told the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) of his plans for Dumpit and is leaving it to them to work it out.
Osmeña made the recommendation after receiving feedback that criminals in Barangays Tejero, T. Padilla and San Roque “are jumping with joy” over Dumpit’s being in jail, “and that’s a very disturbing development,” he said.
The mayor assured that while Dumpit is in the Cebu City Police Office, he will answer for anything that might happen to the policeman.
In a news conference yesterday, the mayor also said he will provide a social worker for the children of the victim in the shooting incident that has been blamed on Dumpit.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 confirmed that the slugs taken from the body of jeepney driver Federico Tabon, 31, came from a .38 revolver.
Lone gun
A report that NBI 7 ballistician Isabelo D. Silvestre Jr. submitted to NBI 7 Chief Reynaldo Esmeralda stated that the two slugs were also fired from “only one firearm.”
The finding supported, in part, the claim of Tabon’s 16-year-old stepson that PO3 Dumpit shot dead the victim using a .38 revolver.
“It shows that he (the stepson) is a credible witness. Three more witnesses are coming to corroborate the boy’s statements,” Esmeralda said.
Dumpit, however, submitted a .45 pistol to the Cebu City Police Office’s Homicide Section hours after the shooting.
“I don’t know if he has another gun. But I doubt he would use a .38 because he is good with the pistol,” said Supt. Melvin Gayotin, acting Cebu City police chief.
Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) chief Arnel Banzon, for his part, said Dumpit does not like to use revolvers.
Drug test
Tabon’s stepson told the NBI 7 that he was sure Dumpit was using a .38 revolver because he often watched jail guards of the nearby Cebu Provincial Rehabilitation and Detention Center practice firing and was familiar with the type of guns they used.
Dumpit was made to undergo a drug test to erase doubts that he used drugs. He tested negative.
“Dumpit was very cooperative. He said he had nothing to hide, so he complied,” Gayotin said.
Autopsy results of Dr. Gil Macato, NBI 7 medico-legal officer, also showed that Tabon died of four bullet wounds, two in the chest, one in the left arm and one in the back.
Macato theorized that that the gunman shot Tabon in the back while he was falling to the ground.
Lawmen failed to recover the two other bullets, believed to have exited from the victim’s body.
Macato said all the gunshot wounds had downward trajectories, which also supported the teenager’s testimony that his stepfather was shot while he was sitting on a bench in Barangay T. Padilla, Cebu City Friday dawn.
Admin too
While he does not want to judge whether or not Dumpit is guilty of shooting two bystanders in two separate incidents last Friday, Mayor Osmeña said he also wants to address concerns raised regarding the effects of keeping the policeman out in the streets.
Dumpit, he added, will be needed more in the firearms proficiency training since a lot of cops need help in their training.
Swat’s Banzon assured that as far as operational matters are concerned, their unit is not affected by Dumpit’s detention at the Mobile Patrol Group.
He admitted, though, that they were all worried about him, being a member of the Swat family.
Dumpit declined to comment about issues regarding his case.
Though Tabon’s family preferred that the NBI 7 handle the investigation, Gayotin said this did not mean Dumpit was off the hook on the administrative side.
He said the administrative case would follow as soon as there is enough proof to conclude that Dumpit was indeed the one who shot Tabon. (LCR/GC/MEA)
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