New witness emerges in Kian delos Santos slay

MANILA, Philippines — Another witness to the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos yesterday testified that the accused police officers shot the teenager and planted a gun on him by the bank of the Tullahan River in Caloocan last year.

A vendor, who happened to be standing along the narrow road leading to the riverbank where Kian was shot, identified Police Officer 3 Arnel Oares and Police Officer 1 Jeremias Pereda as the men she saw firing shots on the night of Aug. 16, 2017.

While she could not recognize the third policeman, presumed to be Police Officer 1 Jerwin Cruz, the witness – kept anonymous for her safety – said she was out to buy rice that night when she saw three police officers dragging a boy, whom she presumed was an informant, with his shirt over his head.

As she was standing behind the gate of their house near the riverbank, the witness said she saw Pereda standing under a circle of light at the end of the road, firing three to four shots at someone near a pig pen by the river.

The witness also said she heard several shots fired by Oares. The bullet found in Kian’s body was traced to the service firearm of Oares, a Senate investigation into Kian’s killing showed.

The witness said she later talked to her husband, who told her about the boy killed outside and seeing the older police officer, whom she identified as Oares, planting a gun on the body.

The witness later realized that the slain teenager was not an asset, but Kian, whom she had known since he was a child.

When asked by authorities that night whether or not she knew the boy, the witness denied knowing him because she feared retaliation – she recognized the police officers involved in his killing as being behind the arrests of drug suspects in their neighborhood.

Earlier, a childhood friend of Kian testified that she saw the policemen kill him.