Cop shoots neighbor; holes up in house before yielding hours later

By Jennifer P. Rendon

 

Hours of negotiation compelled a policeman involved in a shooting incident to yield after initially refusing to surrender to authorities.

The suspect, Corporal Marvin Seasol of Arevalo Police Station, holed up inside their house at Panique Subdivision ah Barabgay Buray, Oton, Iloilo, after he allegedly shot a neighbor around 6 p.m. of March 24.

Seasol allegedly stormed the house of Normando Estrebor at CM Recto Street, Barangay Poblacion West, Oton.

Captain Robert Jayson Pancha, Oton police chief, said Estrebor’s house is around 20 meters from Season’s house.

The event leading to Seasol’s arrest stemmed from a stoning incident directed at the house of the 55-year-old Normando.

The victim and his father Ernesto heard a loud thud on their roof.

The Estrebors checked and saw Seasol hurling stones directed at their house.

The policeman was also armed and shot Normando who was hit on the left lower part of his chest.

A family member took Normando to the Oton Search and Rescue Team (OSART), which later rushed him to West Visayas State University Medical Center.

Ernesto immediately reported the incident to police authorities.

When Pancha’s team arrived at his house, the suspect did not surrender. His family also denied that he was inside their house.

The suspect did not heed the local police’s plea to turn himself in. At one point, he allegedly claimed, “magkakamatayan tayo dito.”

Through all this, his family repeatedly denied that he was inside the family’s compound,

At that time, members of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) Special Weapons and Tactics team and the 1st Iloilo Provincial Mobile Force Company already surrounded Seasol’s house.

Sangguniang Bayan member Sofronio Fusin, a retired police officer, also intervened. Seasol’s former commander at Arevalo Police Station in Iloilo City, Captain Jose Val Ladublan, also went to the scene.

Later, he allegedly allowed a classmate to enter the house and turned himself in after more than three hours.

He also surrendered his issued caliber .9mm Glock 17 pistol loaded with 15 ammunition and a 5.56 M16 Elisco rifle loaded with a magazine with 28 ammunition.

Members of the Scene of the Crime Operations recovered four bullet cartridges and two dud bullets.

Colonel Gilbert Gorero, Iloilo police chief, said Season refused to subject himself to a paraffin test.

It was gathered that the Estrebors and Seasols had a long standing feud.

“We don’t know where it started. But even the Estrebors also had police records,” Pancha said.

According to their neighbors, both parties were “ma-oy” or unruly when drunk.

Seasol was allegedly intoxicated during the incident.

Meanwhile, Gorero said they would be filing a case for frustrated murder against Seasol.

He will also be subjected to a motu proprio investigation after he allegedly fired his gun.

“I hope what happened to Seasol would serve as a lesson to everyone that most things could not be resolved with the use of a firearm,” Gorero said.