AN INVESTIGATION is underway against five Talamban policemen after an autopsy report showed that Faustino Navarro Jr. was shot in the head last Thursday morning.
Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, head of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said he will summon the police officers on Monday to clarify the conflicting reports on Navarro’s death.
“Para malinawan ang publiko sa nangyari (So the public may know what really happened),” he said.
Beltran’s story
Talamban Police Chief Michael Angel Beltran said they were responding to an alarm regarding an armed person in Sitio Tigbao when they chanced upon four men, one of whom was Navarro, who were allegedly making a transaction outside a store.
When they saw the policemen, the four men ran. Navarro, however, got cornered in an empty lot.
Beltran said they were 30 meters away from Navarro when they heard an explosion. They checked and found Navarro dead.
He said they didn’t fire at the 34-year-old suspect.
He said Navarro tried to lob a hand grenade during the chase. As he was taking off the pin, he allegedly fell in a ditch. The grenade exploded in his hand.
But Dr. Nestor Sator, chief medico-legal officer of the Regional Crime Laboratory 7, said Navarro was shot in the head, with the bullet exiting the back.
Possible cause
He said the wound may have killed Navarro and not the grenade explosion because no vital organs were damaged.
“Kung mamatay man siya, mataudtauran pa kay mahutdan ni ug dugo (If the grenade explosion caused his death, he would have survived a bit longer),” Sator said.
Beltran, in an interview, said they are willing to undergo an investigation and a possible paraffin test. He also stood by his statement they didn’t shoot Navarro.
CCPO’s City Intelligence Branch Chief Romeo Santander said Navarro belongs to a small-time robbery group and had previous robbery cases.
