By Kate Louise B. Javier
A rookie policewoman from the Manila Police District appeared Tuesday at the Caloocan City Police Headquarters and claimed that the suspect’s gun in the stray bullet case on New Year’s Eve was her missing service firearm.
The police officer said that her service firearm (Glock 17-9mm pistol) was stolen from her house in Tondo, Manila, on her birthday, Dec. 10.
“A man forcibly opened the door. I was sleeping that time and my service firearm was placed in the kitchen,” the cop, who refused to give her name, recalled.
In an interview, the policewoman, assigned to MPD Station 2, went to Caloocan police after learning about a suspect who fired shots during a gun duel, hitting the two minors.
On New Year’s Eve, Joven Earl Gaces, 10, Grade 5 student, and his friend Princess Denise Cruzat, 10, Grade 4, were hit by stray bullets during a shootout involving her neighbors in Barangay 35, Maypajo.
Gaces is now in critical condition at Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center after a stray bullet hit his shoulder and abdomen. Cruzat, meanwhile, is now in stable condition after she underwent operation at Tondo Medical Center.
The suspect identified as Isagani Ancheta, 38, a Divisoria vendor, was arrested after being cornered and mauled by the residents.
His opponent, Gil Galapuz, 27, was also brought to JRRMC after sustaining gunshot and stab wounds.
The firearm seized from Ancheta was allegedly the missing service pistol of the cop.
Ancheta earlier claimed that he just borrowed the gun from a certain “Joel,” a resident of Tondo, Manila.
The serial number of the policewoman’s lost firearm matched the serial number inside the barrel of Ancheta’s gun, police said.
Senior Supt. Jemar Modequillo, Caloocan Police chief, said examinations will be done to verify the claim.
