Thursday, May 01, 2008 Editorials: Crime scene preservation
POLICE officials were honest enough to admit some lapses in the handling of the crime scene right after Monday’s bank heist in Carcar City that left one robber killed.
Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Carmelo Valmoria said policemen in Carcar City did move some evidence and the body of the slain Nelson Gutierrez.
Among the observed lapses:
--Photos taken on slain robbery suspect Nelson Gutierrez immediately after the shooting and several minutes after showed that a gun suddenly appeared near his body.
The gun reportedly fell into a ditch nearby and was picked up by a police officer.
--Gutierrez fell with his face down after he was shot by SPO1 Meliton Agadier during the commotion but minutes later his lifeless body was already on its back.
Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Carmelo Valmoria said the Carcar police needed to move the body to find out if Gutierrez had another weapon, like a live grenade.
--When Scene of the Crime Operation elements arrived, all the firearms and spent shells were already gathered in a box and turned over by the local police to them.
Perspective
Nestor Sator, chief of the Regional Crime Laboratory, placed the “lapses” in perspective by noting that the shooting happened in a highway and caused a traffic jam.
Besides, he said, curious onlookers would have ruined the crime scene anyway.
Given the success of Carcar policemen in foiling the bank heist, it is easy to gloss over whatever mistakes, intentional or unintentional, in preserving the crime scene.
Rules
The mood is actually forgiving, generally, although this does not mean the lapses should not be pointed out to ensure these won’t happen again or become the norm.
The innocent act, for example, of picking up in a ditch a gun used in a crime can very well degenerate into a practice of placing a gun beside an unarmed shooting victim.
There is reason why rules are laid down to preserve a crime scene---it could mean the difference between solving a crime of hitting a blank wall---and the police know that.
