A DISMISSED police officer committed suicide after he shot dead his wife, son, and stepdaughter while they were asleep inside their house in Barangay Valladolid, Carcar City yesterday morning.
Ex-Police Officer 2 Joel Belamide Lopez, 36, used an M16 automatic rifle in shooting himself in the mouth, said Chief Insp. Jose Liddawa, the city police commander.
Liddawa, in a phone interview, said Lopez used the same high-powered firearm in killing his wife Jelyn Lapiña Lopez, 36; stepdaughter Angel May Lapiña, 12; and son Myir Lapiña Lopez, 8, past 5 a.m.
Each fatality had a gunshot wound in the head. Myir and Angel May were on the same bed, while their mother was on the other bed. Joel was found near his home’s door.
Liddawa theorized financial problems possibly led Lopez to commit the crime.
“May away siya sa asawa tungkol sa pera (He fought with his wife over money),” he said.
Investigators led by SPO2 Irving Avila, Lopez’s neighbor, learned that Jelyn was the vault custodian of a pawnshop in Carcar City. The management learned that it had a deficit of P30,000 during an inventory.
Jelyn possibly borrowed the money without permission for Lopez’s recent trip to Manila. He reportedly went to Camp Crame, so he would know the status of his appeal to be reinstated in the service.
“Di na siya kakita anang kuwartaha nga gigamit kay wala na siya’y trabahao. Mao na lang miresort siyag ingon ani (He couldn’t find that much money because he was jobless. That’s why he resorted to this),” Avila said.
He said they will interview the pawnshop’s management to validate the information.
Avila said that Lopez carried out the crime alone, then turned the rifle on himself.
“Di man kaya niya. Tan-aw niya patay na man iyang pamilya, so commit siya’g suicide (He couldn’t take it. Seeing that his family is dead, he took his own life),” he said.
Police recovered the rifle and four empty shells in the crime scene.
Liddawa said they still have to determine where Lopez got the rifle, as no civilian is allowed to own high-powered rifles.
Lopez was dismissed from service in September 2013 for his failure to attend the court hearings of a drug suspect he caught when he was a member of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LCPO).
A police official, who requested anonymity, said the drug suspect was “big-time” and had “connections.”
Relatives said Lopez and Jelyn were heard arguing about money before the crime happened.
Divina dela Calzada, Lopez’s aunt, said the pawnshop dismissed Jelyn from her job last Sunday after the discovery and she was told that the allegedly stolen amount could be higher. She heard the money was intended as payment so Lopez can go back in the service, but Avila said this claim is still a rumor.
Dela Calzada, who works as a jewelry appraiser in the same pawnshop, said she was the one who backed Jelyn so she can get the job.
In October 2011, a similar incident happened in a subdivision in Barangay Tabunok, Talisay City where a retired overseas worker shot his wife, four children, and helper to death, before killing himself.
Emmanuel Ponce, 55, spared his 13-year-old daughter, the lone survivor. Ponce reportedly became mad when his wife demanded separation from him, after she got fed up with his maltreatment of her and their children.
In Lopez’s case, dela Calzada described her nephew as a good person.
His batchmates in the Tanglaw-Diwa class of police recruits, PO3 Rosendo Binondo and PO3 Girlie Tolop, were stunned.
“Hilumon, nya loner siya ba. Sa iyang pagka polis, maayo siya. Kugihan siya motrabaho (He was quiet, a loner. As a cop, he was good),” said Binondo. “Di kaayo tigtapok. Sayang siya sa iyang nabuhat ba, nadamay pag apil ang iyang pamilya (He didn’t join crowds. Such a waste, even affected his family).”
Tolop said Lopez rarely talked with them.
They graduated in December 2006 and became part of the Regional Public Safety Batallion in 2007.
Lopez was deployed in Jolo, Sulu two years later. When he returned to Police Regional Office 7, he was assigned in Regional Intelligence Division, before he was transferred to LCPO.
He was relieved from LCPO after his failure to attend court hearings and was thrown to Talisay City Police Station. He was then dismissed from the service.
Avila said he was told by Lopez that the latter failed to receive court summons at the time. He saw Lopez last Friday at Carcar City Police Station, where the latter obtained a clearance for his passport application.
“He was a good police officer,” Avila said. (KAL)