Rampage in a courtroom: Canadian shoots 2 dead, then self

CEBU CITY, Philippines – With an election gun ban in place, a despondent Canadian out on bail on gun charges yesterday managed to bring two firearms inside a courtroom here and shoot a doctor and his lawyer dead.

John Holdridge Pope, a retired Canadian journalist, was wounded in the wrist and thighs by a responding policeman before he turned his gun on himself.

He was declared dead at 10:50 a.m. at the Cebu Doctors Hospital.

Pope was facing charges for illegal possession of firearms, grave threats and six counts of malicious mischief and was slated to appear before the Municipal Trial Court (MTC) Branch 6 of Judge Pamela Baring-Uy at 8:30 a.m. for the charges filed by physician Rene Rafols.

The Canadian managed to smuggle a gun in his sock and another in his bag despite being frisked by security guards at the entrance of the Palace of Justice.

Pope headed for the courtroom and fired at Rafols and his lawyer Juvian Achas. The two died of gunshots to the head. Pope then rushed out of the courtroom, ran into state prosecutor Ma. Theresa Casio in the hallway and shot her. 

Casio, who is handling Pope’s grave threat cases in Branch 1, was hit in the nape but was pronounced out of danger later at the Chong Hua Hospital.

Pope proceeded to the offices of Cebu City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon, Deputy City Prosecutor Oscar Capacio and Prosecutor Naruzen Lorete. All three were not yet in.

Police Officer 1 Oriel Hagupit met Pope in the hallway and asked him in Cebuano to surrender. Pope, who appeared not to have understood the dialect, tried to open fire.

Hagupit, who was assigned at the Provincial Capitol just across the hall of justice, said he was forced to fire back hitting Pope in the wrist and thighs. Pope put his gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Police recovered a caliber .357 handgun, four slugs and a caliber .45 pistol inside Pope’s sling bag.

Senior Superintendent Mariano Natuel, acting director of the Cebu City Police Office, said there could have been lapses on the part of the security guards who failed to detect that Pope was carrying two guns.

Cebu Executive Judge Silvestre Maamo immediately suspended all court hearings scheduled yesterday at the hall of justice. 

Pope, 66, had lived in the Philippines for 14 years, and had been with a Filipina girlfriend since 2011. There were reports that he had been helping street children and even sent some to school, but he became despondent and was abandoned by his girlfriend.

In 2011, Pope was held by police on charges of illegal possession of firearms and for threatening other residents of the condominium unit he was renting. He was able to post bail.

Pope was accused of pointing a gun at Rafols several times. The Canadian was quoted at the time as saying that he was carrying a pistol for self-defense.

The Canadian also had a spat with local media, suing a reporter and the editor-in-chief of The Freeman. 

Region 7 Bureau of Immigration alien control officer Casimiro Madarang said Pope had been ordered deported as an undesirable alien but he filed a motion for reconsideration with the Department of Justice. The motion is pending.

On Oct. 12 last year he was declared an overstaying and undesirable alien and was put on the bureau’s blacklist, but was not deported because he still had several pending cases in various courts.  

Tighter security in courts nationwide

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court (SC) immediately stepped up security measures in all courts following the incident.

Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, who has jurisdiction over local courts nationwide, immediately flew to Cebu and directed all executive judges nationwide to implement a two-level security checking system in their respective justice halls.

Marquez had earlier issued a memorandum for judges to assign court staff at courtroom entrances to inspect those coming in before hearings. He said he would reiterate this order.

“This way, there will be two levels of security checks – one at the entrance of the building and another at the entrance of the courtroom,” he explained in a phone interview.

Marquez said the security guards on duty at the time of the incident were immediately relieved and the regional police office will deploy operatives to beef up security in the building.

“The judges will also reactivate the judicial security groups they had earlier created precisely to secure the building,” he said.

Marquez noted that Pope was a regular visitor at the justice hall owing to his legal problems.

The DOJ condemned the incident and blamed security lapses in the hall of justice. 

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano,who supervises all fiscals nationwide, called on the SC to conduct a thorough investigation on the incident.

“We are truly saddened by the violent  loss of lives that can never be justified under any circumstance,” Arellano said.

– Nia Sumacot, Mylen Manto/Freeman, Edu Punay, AP