Six officers suspended following outrage over fatal shooting of teen in Philippines

Six police officers in the Philippines have been suspended and are under criminal investigation for the fatal shooting of a teenager they had wrongly identified as a murder suspect. Jerhode Baltazar, 17 was fatally shot in the head at a suburban Manila fishing village last Wednesday, according to local reports. The police were reportedly looking for suspects involved in a shooting incident that occurred in Barangay NBBS Kaunlaran on 2 August. After a suspect managed to evade arrest, law enforcement was allegedly informed that the suspect had boarded a boat. Upon reaching the location, law enforcement spotted the teenager along with his friend’s boat. News website Rappler reported that the teenager was gripped by fear and so the 17-year-old leapt from the boat and began swimming, while his friend remained aboard. The police subsequently opened fire at Baltazar. It was found out later that the 17-year-old victim was not the suspect the cops were looking for. Authorities have now acknowledged that the officers’ decision to shoot the unarmed 17-year-old was a ‘lapse in judgment’. ‘They cannot invoke self-defence. They were unable to prove that the victim resisted arrest,’ Navotas city police chief Col Allan Umipig told local media. The basis for the police’s mistaken identity, however, remains unclear. They had received orders to apprehend a suspect linked to another shooting incident in Navotas. The six officers involved have been relieved of their duties and are currently held in custody, pending an inquiry into potential charges of homicide. In accordance with Philippine law, the maximum penalty for such an offence is 20 years of imprisonment. The law also mandates that ‘the police officer must first issue a verbal warning before he could use force against an offender’. Meanwhile, videos circulating on social media showed Jesse Baltazar, the victim’s father, gripping his son’s lifeless body after it was recovered from the water. Mr Baltazar raised questions by asking authorities why his son suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head despite the officers’ claim of firing warning shots. Local media reported that occurrences of this nature were frequent throughout the tenure of former president Rodrigo Duterte , who waged a brutal war against drugs resulting in a spate of many such violent incidents. In December 2020, for example, a notable case unfolded when former police officer Jonel Nuezca fatally shot Sonya Gregorio, aged 52, and her 25-year-old son Frank during a heated altercation. The incident was captured on video and subsequently gained widespread attention after going viral. Approximately a year later, Nuezca died while in incarceration.