Medical records, HPG cops’ claims clash

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is set to conduct next week a reenactment of the events that led to the killing of motorcyclist John dela Riarte last month.

Investigators will also reconstruct the crime scene after the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) report on the incident and the medical and autopsy records did not match.

Lawyer Danielito Lalusis, head agent of the NBI’s Death Investigation Division, said yesterday Police Officer 3 Jeremiah de Villa admitted to shooting Dela Riarte twice. He made the admission in the presence of Alfredo Austria, an officer of the Philippine National Police (PNP) legal service.

However, hospital records from the PNP General Hospital and the NBI autopsy report state that Dela Riarte’s body bore four gunshot wounds.

De Villa, Austria and Police Officer 2 Jonjie Manon-og appeared before the NBI yesterday morning to answer the bureau’s summons.

The two HPG policemen limited their statement to what happened when they arrested Dela Riarte until they brought him into the police car, Lalusis said.

He said De Villa claimed he could not totally remember what happened in the police car, “probably due to panic.”

When asked about the viral videos of Dela Riarte’s arrest, the police officers refused to answer, Lalusis said. The videos showed Dela Riarte, whose hands were cuffed behind his back, being punched and shoved by the lawmen on the street.

Spot report

The HPG, in a spot report on the July 29 incident, said De Villa “without any delay and pushed by his judgment call grabbed his gun and shot Dela Riarte twice” while driving along EDSA on their way to the HPG headquarters in Camp Crame.

Dela Riarte reportedly went wild, head-butted Manon-og and grabbed his gun, the report said.

De Villa and Manon-og arrested Dela Riarte when he allegedly went berserk after his motorcycle rear-ended a Mitsubishi Lancer driven by Eric Felix Fajardo along EDSA in Makati City at around 9:30 a.m.

Dela Riarte, hours before the incident, posted on Facebook that he was about to go to his first day at his new job. He was hired as a company driver for a bank, investigators said.

‘Gasping but unconscious’

Records from the hospital’s emergency room were given to the NBI-DID yesterday afternoon.

Dela Riarte was brought to the hospital at around 10:35 a.m. by De Villa, Manon-og and another HPG officer.

Dr. Jerome Bolivar, Dela Riarte’s attending physician, told reporters yesterday he was “gasping but unconscious” when the HPG police officers brought him into the emergency room.

“When (the police officers) referred him to us he was already in a stretcher and his arms open,” Bolivar recalled.

He also said doctors tried to resuscitate him for around “30 to 45 minutes” before declaring him dead at 11:15 a.m.

Dela Riarte’s relatives retrieved his belongings at around 12:45 p.m. and his body was pulled out of the hospital at past 5 p.m.

The hospital records showed Dela Riarte died from gunshot wounds in his left shoulder, in the right side of the chest and two in his right thigh.

Bolivar said the records matched the findings of the NBI’s autopsy report. Lalusis confirmed Bolivar’s findings.