Cop shoots wife dead

A 29-year-old policeman was arrested for shooting his wife dead in a heated quarrel inside their car before dawn yesterday in Caloocan City.

Police Officer 1 Darwin Evangelista, assigned at the Regional Direct Support Unit-National Capital Region Police Office (RDSU-NCRPO), is now locked up at a Caloocan City police detention cell pending the filing of parricide charges.

Ruby Bautista, his wife’s mother, walked away unharmed from the shooting incident.

The arrested officer refused to talk to reporters.

Evangelista’s wife, Ria, 29, succumbed to a gunshot wound from a .9mm pistol The bullet entered her right shoulder and pierced her heart, police probers said.

She died on the way to the Bernardino General Hospital on Zabarte Road in Camarin.

Chief Inspector Jose Ramirez Valencia, Station Investigation Branch (SIB) chief, said the shooting incident occurred as the officer was about to leave their house on Block 4, Lot 7, Catleya street, Merry Homes Subdivision, Camarin, Caloocan City at around 4 a.m.

Ria, allegedly consumed with jealousy and suspecting her husband was up to no good, refused to allow him to leave without taking her along with him.

According to SPO2 Franco Francia of the RDSU, Evangelista was still on duty at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig when he decided to go home early yesterday to bring his salary to his wife.

"Initial information reaching us revealed that the wife wanted to go with Evangelista back to Camp Bagong Diwa, which he refused to do," Francia said.

He said the wife’s insistence led to a heated argument. The quarrel instensified after the wife entered Evangelista’s vehicle, a Nissan X-Trail.

The cop’s mother-in-law tried to pacify the couple and joined her daughter inside the vehicle.

This enraged the cop even more. He alighted from the vehicle, pulled out his service pistol and fired at the back seat, where his wife and mother-in-law were seated.

A bullet hit his wife in the shoulder. The mother-in-law was unscathed.

"He is a good cop. I just don’t know why this tragedy took place," Francia said.

Caloocan police recovered from the crime scene three spent shells from a .9mm pistol.

The handgun with its magazine loaded with 14 live bullets was surrendered by the suspect’s mother-in-law to the police.