The police officer who was initially reported to have shot himself dead in Quezon City turned out to have been killed by a fellow police after losing in an arm wrestling during their drinking session.
The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) bared Tuesday after a follow-up investigation that Cpl. Higino Wayan was shot by Cpl. Sherwin Rebot after Lorenzo Lapay, a civilian driver who witnessed the incident, retracted his earlier narrative that Wayan killed himself.
Lapay said that it was Rebot who fired shots at the victim during their drinking session on May 30 in Barangay Commonwealth, police added.
"During the initial investigation, it was reported that based on the first statement... noticed that victim P/Cpl. Wayan took the service firearm... Suddenly, victim Wayan pointed the handgun on his chest and uttered the words 'Gusto mo iputok ko pa ito sa sarili ko (Do you want me to shoot myself?),' and pulled the trigger on his chest," police in its report said.
But when members of the investigating team conducted a deeper investigation, they found out that Wayan and Rebot "had an arm wrestling" and Wayan "overpowered Rebot during the arm wrestling which prompted" the suspect to get his service firearm and shoot the victim, it added.
The QCPD said both Rebot and Lapay were tagged in the killing of Wayan. Another police officer, Cpl. Harold Mendoza, who was resting at the time of the incident, was also implicated in the crime.
"Both police officers will face administrative and criminal charges while the civilian driver will face criminal charges," the QCPD said.
Rebot will be charged with murder and violation of illegal possesion of firearms and ammunition as he was found to be in possession of an unlicensed firearm.
Mendoza and Lapay, meanwhile, will face murder by conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges.