Teenager wounded in ‘legitimate’ operation, says Taliño

Taliño

The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) has made an initial finding that the police did not go beyond the scope of their authority when they wounded a 15-year-old boy during an operation in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City last Saturday evening.

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, the director of PRO-7, said their initial investigation showed that the operation conducted by the City Intelligence Branch (CIB) was legitimate.

He said the teenager reportedly ran and tried to aim a gun at the operatives, prompting the latter to fire a shot at him.

“As I repeatedly said, it would be better for our policemen to neutralize targets when their lives are in danger,” Taliño said.

The teenager earlier told reporters that he ran away because he got scared and was surprised when the police shot him, hitting him in the back of his body.

The boy, now confined in a Cebu City hospital, was declared in stable condition by his attending doctors.

Chief Insp. Cristopher Navida, CIB chief, said they did not have any intention to hurt the teenager. But when the boy aimed at them, Navida said the operatives had no choice but to shoot him.

He said the boy was holding a caliber .45 pistol with seven live ammunitions.

The police operation also led to the arrest of five persons who were allegedly into drugs.

Navida said they received an information that the teenager was an alleged drug runner.

Meanwhile, a suspected drug peddler was gunned down by two unknown assailants in Barangay Basak San Nicolas, Cebu City past 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Elmer Alimpuangon, 39, suffered five gunshot wounds on the different parts of his body.

The victim was sitting on the roadside when he was repeatedly shot by one of the two men on board a motorcycle, said Senior Insp. Manuel Cañete of the Cebu City Police Office Homicide Division.

Alimpuangon, he said, was previously jailed on drug-related charge but was released from the Cebu City Jail last January.