Cop who accidentally shot nursing graduate identified

Witnesses have identified the policeman who accidentally shot dead a nursing graduate while firing shots at two fleeing robbers in Sampaloc, Manila Thursday night.

In a police gallery, the witnesses positively identified PO3 Angelo Buzon, detailed at the Sta. Cruz police station.

Buzon was reportedly firing at two men aboard a motorcycle along Loyola and P. Paredes streets when a stray bullet hit Marie Grace Raymundo, 28, of Valenzuela City. She succumbed to a gunshot wound in the forehead while undergoing treatment at the Mary Chiles Hospital.

Officer-on-case SPO3 Danilo Vidad reported that the policeman disappeared immediately after the victim fell to the ground. Witnesses, however, said they can recognize the policeman.

Police probers recovered four spent shells and two deformed slugs at the scene of the crime.

But the witnesses initially refused to identify the policeman in a police line-up for fear of reprisal, Chief Inspector Alejandro Yanquiling Jr., chief of the Homicide Section of the Manila Police District, told The STAR.

Buzon, however, categorically denied he was the policeman involved in the accident. He admitted though that he fired a warning shot while running after a group of robbers in another incident somewhere in Sta. Cruz on the night the victim was accidentally shot.

Yanquiling said Buzon’s service firearm will be subjected to ballistic tests to determine if it matches the recovered slugs at the scene of the crime.

As this developed, MPD officer-in-charge Senior Superintendent Danilo Abarzosa required all Manila policemen to undergo firearms proficiency tests. A shootfest will also be held next week to upgrade their shooting skills. – Nestor Etolle