The Commission on Human Rights in Negros Oriental is investigating a police auxiliary and a regular policeman believed responsible for an assassination attempt on a suspected drug pusher a few months ago in the province.
CHR investigator Jess Cañete presented during the meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council yesterday at the Capitol in Dumaguete, a raw video footage of the suspects on a motorbike as they tried to gun down a suspected pusher.
The video gleaned from a gasoline station showed two uniformed men on a motorcycle coming up to a third person on another motorcycle. As the first vehicle stopped, a man in dark clothes that Cañete said appeared to be a police auxiliary pulled out a short firearm and pointed it on their target, who dodged the bullets and fled on foot.
The gunman chased him and again fired at the target, but the latter managed to escape unharmed. The shooting took place Dec. 16, 2014 at 4:07:58 p.m. as seen in the footageage.
Cañete said the subject of the shooting is now incarcerated due to illegal drugs. The man told Cañete he can identify his attackers.
The CHR investigator declined to name those involved until the investigation wraps up. But he said the police officer and the back-rider, later identified as an asset of the police, were members of the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Group.
He also warned he will be forced to sue the owner/manager of the gasoline station for allegedly deleting the original video footage of the shooting incident.
Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos, officer in charge of the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office, said he welcomed the initial information and evidence shared by Cañete. He assured he will conduct an investigation of the incident and perhaps, establish a link to other shooting cases and lead the police to the perpetrators. (PNA)
