MANILA, Philippines — A Quezon City cop shot and killed a 52-year-old woman on Monday night in Fairview, the Philippine National Police confirmed.
Police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Tuesday vowed to file charges against Police MSgt. Hensie Zinampan, saying he directed the PNP Internal Affairs Service to expedite the conduct of the investigation into the incident.
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In a video of the incident first posted by ABS-CBN News, a drunk Zinampan is seen slowly approaching Lilybeth Valdez, who was unarmed, while hiding his gun behind his back.
After threatening her, the video shows him pulling her hair before shooting her at point-blank range.
The victim's family is heard weeping afterward.
According to a police report, Valdez's daughter said that Zinampan also threatened to harm them.
"This is disgusting and unacceptable because the police should be the ones protecting our countrymen, and not the criminals against them," said Eleazar.
“I am making administrative cases against this policeman easier to expedite his removal from the PNP. Apart from this criminal case, I am also speeding up to give justice to the victim,” he added.
READ: 'No such thing' as culture of violence, impunity in the PNP — spokesperson
'Good cop'
The case drew comparisons to the killing of a mother and her son in Paniqui, Tarlac, also by a police officer.
52-year-old Sonya Gregorio and her son Frank Anthony Gregorio were shot by a police Jonel Nuezca over an argument in December.
Calls for reform in the Philippine National Police resounded after the case, with critics slamming the culture of violence and impunity in the agency.
"I am proud to be a good cop...The sin of Nuezca is not the sin of the entire PNP," Zinampan wrote in a Facebook post at the time, months before he committed the same sin.
Screenshots of his December 29 post have since gone viral on social media. Police leadership at the time was adamant in tagging the case as an isolated incident.
Over the coronavirus pandemic, cases of police brutality have piled up, many of which have gone unacknowledged.
READ: 'Isolated incident': Despite Tarlac killings, no policy changes in PNP ahead