‘Suspect’ in QC stray bullet incident remains in detention

Quezon City Police District ( QCPD) officials yesterday assured the relatives of the 17-year-old boy hit by a stray bullet on New Year’s Eve that the arrested “person of interest” is still detained.

QCPD director Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar said that Jaime Pabua, 49, is detained at the Batasan police station after he was charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

Policemen nabbed Pabua while in possession of a loaded Colt caliber .45 pistol near the vicinity of the stray bullet incident.

The victim, Leo Mark Aquino, was hit by a stray bullet on his left shoulder while he was watching the New Year’s Eve revelry near his house along IBP Road in Barangay Batasan Hills.

He was rushed to the East Avenue Medical Center and is now in stable condition as surgeons prepare to operate to remove the bullet still lodged in his shoulder.

A witness told responding police that Pabua fired his gun at the nearby Civil Service Compound at the time Aquino was hit by a stray bullet.

Investigators said another suspect in the indiscriminate firing case identified as Harold Moises was killed on Monday after an alleged shootout with police.

Moises was gunned down when he allegedly engaged policemen in a shootout at the corner of Kabisig and Katangian streets in Barangay Batasan Hills.

Eleazar said they were about to arrest Moises after receiving information that he had fired indiscriminately during the New Year’s Eve festivities in the barangay that night.

However, Eleazar said they could not determine yet who between Pabua or Moises was actually involved in the indiscriminate firing incident that injured Aquino.

The bullet, once removed from the victim’s body, will be subjected to ballistics examination and matched with the firearms recovered from the two suspects.

He said investigators are not discounting the possibility that other suspects could have been involved in the indiscriminate firing on New Year’s Eve.