DAVAO CITY – Police filed Monday, July 4, murder charges against a doctor who allegedly shot and killed a student during a heated altercation in a bar here Saturday, July 2.
Police Col. Albert Lupaz, director of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO), said in an interview in his office Monday that the criminal complaint against Dr. Marvin Rey Andrew R. Pepino, a non-uniformed personnel of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Davao Region, was received around 8:30 a.m. by the Davao City Prosecution Office for finding of a probable cause to charge the suspect for the crime of murder before the Regional Trial Court.
Lupaz said that a complaint for illegal possession of firearms under Republic Act No. 10591, the Comprehensive Firearms and Regulation Act, was also filed against the suspect before the court.
He assured the family of the victim, Amir Mangacop, a 21-year-old medical student, of an impartial investigation involving its own personnel. Pepino was a doctor detailed at the hospital of the police regional headquarters in Catitipan, this city.
SELF-DEFENSE
He said the suspect, who is currently under the custody of the San Pedro Police Station, claimed self-defense after he was allegedly mauled by a group of men for attempting to pacify the commotion between his outnumbered companions and the group of Mangacop at Lugar Bar at Esquena de Tavera Building.
“Allegedly, Dr. Pepino was mauled by a group of men. He was forced to fire his gun because he was outnumbered. The ones involved in the commotion were Pepino’s friends. He was just there to pacify,” he said.
Lapuz added that after Pepino was assaulted, the commotion further escalated, forcing the suspect to draw his gun tucked in his pants and shot one of the assailants.
Mangacop sustained seven bullet wounds in the body and was taken to the Davao Doctors Hospital but was declared dead on arrival by attending physicians.
Asked what triggered the conflict between the parties, Lupaz said: “I have no time of knowing what happened there. What was just reported, is that it was a conflict involving Pepino’s friends that he tried to pacify but after it was pacified, another commotion broke out and the anger was directed at him.”
He said he saw no liability on the part of the responding one-man mobile patrol unit, Police Corporal Ropel Garsalino of the San Pedro Police Station, as he did his part to resolve the conflict. The shooting reportedly happened in the presence of Garsalino.
Lapuz said that the incident started as a heated altercation that escalated into a shooting incident. He said police are requesting a copy of the closed circuit television camera footage of the shooting from the owner of the bar.
CLEAN RECORD
He said that Pepino had no previous record of misconduct with the PRO-Davao. “Napakabait nun. I tell you, nung nagkasakit ako dun sa regional headquarters, talagang tinulungan ako nun. He is very professional. Pero medyo nakainom lang. When it comes to his personality, he is a doctor at the regional headquarters, wala akong masabi na derogatory record (He was very kind. When I got sick at the regional headquarters, he tended to me. He was very professional. But maybe, he was just under the influence of alcohol. When it comes to his personality, he was a doctor at the regional headquarters who had no derogatory record),” he said.