Cops linked to boy’s death tested negative for gunpowder burn

A paraffin test has shown that the four policemen from Carbon Police Station who were linked to the death of stray bullet victim Bladen Skyler Abatayo were negative of gunpowder burns.

The result came out as the Philippine National Police launched an investigation to determine who was responsible for the death of the four-year-old boy, who was killed by a bullet supposedly fired when police operatives engaged some drug suspects in a shootout in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City last Tuesday, July 10.

The family of Abatayo and their neighbors had insisted that there was no shootout and the bullet could only come from the policemen who raided an alleged drug den, which adjoined the home of the Abatayos. Bladen Skyler was in a room inside his house doing his school homework when he was hit and killed by a stray bullet.

The four policemen underwent the paraffin test on Thursday, July 12, two days after their drug operation in Sitio Bato of Barangay Ermita that killed Abatayo.
Finding them negative of gunpowder burns means they did not fire a gun over the same period.

Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO 7) director, however, said that even if the four drug enforcement unit (DEU) operatives of the Carbon police were found negative in the paraffin test, they still could not be cleared of any liability in the incident, pending the final outcome of the PNP’s investigation into the boy’s death.

Sinas said the four policemen, who were ordered relieved by PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde last night, would remain in that status until the investigation has been completed.