A POLICE officer was slapped with frustrated murder charges after shooting a transport network vehicle service (TNVS) passenger two weeks ago, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Dionardo Carlos said.
Carlos said Police Corporal Reymark Rigor was also charged with illegal possession of firearm and ammunition in relation to the Omnibus Election Code.
Rigor is currently out on bail but was placed under camp restriction at the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) headquarters in Camp Karingal while undergoing administrative hearing.
On the evening of February 8, 2022, Rigor shot Adrianne Dominique Castor for an unknown reason while inside a Grab car along Scout Rallos Extension.
The incident was caught on a closed-circuit television camera.
Castor said he and his driver saw Rigor, who was then riding his motorcycle, fall on the ground.
Rigor then stood and picked his gun from the ground and pointed it at them.
Castor said he immediately got out of the car and warned people on board the vehicles behind them that the motorcycle rider was armed while Rigor shot him.
He sustained a gunshot wound in his back and was rushed to the hospital.
Castor also complained of the bias investigation conducted by Rigor’s fellow cops identified as Police Staff Sergeant Bryan Busto and Police Corporal Jaypee Tordil.
He said the investigators downplayed his statement and did not even take statements from the doctors who treated him.
Carlos said Busto and Tordil were charged for neglect of duty for their failure to conduct a thorough and proper investigation on the said incident.
“This shows that we are holding our police personnel accountable for their behavior. We give them the right avenue to answer the allegation while making sure that the wheel of justice for the victim is turning,” Carlos said.
"In the recent days, there have been reports of crimes involving police personnel. We want to assure the public that your PNP does not condone any act of violence. An act of few men does not reflect and disrupt the entire organization’s mission to protect and serve the public,” he added.
The PNP has been in hot water recently over the involvement of several personnel in crimes.
Last week, four police personnel assigned at the Central Visayas Police Office were detained after admitting hand in the robbery-homicide of a couple in San Fernando Cebu.
In May 2021, Master Sergeant Hensie Zinampan gunned down his neighbor, Lilybeth Valdez, 52 following a heated confrontation along an alley in Quezon City. The actual shooting was caught on camera and circulated online.
Zinampan was charged with murder. (SunStar Philippines)