The Department of Justice has ordered the indictment of three policemen and an “asset” over the murder of 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos in Caloocan City.
Acting prosecutor general Jorge Catalan said the panel of prosecutors that conducted the preliminary investigation of the case has ordered the filing of murder charges against officers Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda, Jerwin Cruz, and civilian Renato Perez.
“They are being charged for murder because treachery was found to be present,” Catalan told reporters on Monday (January 29).
The DOJ conducted the preliminary investigation based on the complaints filed by Kian’s parents and the National Bureau of Investigation.
In its 43-page resolution, the panel which is chaired by senior assistant state prosecutor Toffel Austria also recommended charging the four with planting of dangerous drugs and firearms.
Kian, a grade 11 student, was shot dead near the Tullahan River on the night of August 16, 2017.
The officers who killed him claimed he was a drug suspect and had tried firing a gun while resisting arrest.
“Our examination of the records reveals the presence of treachery, abuse of superior strength and evident premeditation, which qualify the killing into murder,” read the panel’s resolution.
The panel indicated that “witnesses Ma Luisa G Walican and Princess Ann Alano categorically narrated that they saw respondents talking to Kian before the latter was pushed, fell into the ground (mud) and eventually shot.”
It added that “witness Luisa G Walican even heard the victim beg for mercy.
“These narrations sufficiently contradict the version of the respondents that Kian ran away when he spotted them and bravely engaged said respondent-policemen in a shootout, thus, forcing respondent PO3 Oares to retaliate and, by judgment call, in self-defence and fire back,” the panel said.
“The gunshot wounds sustained by Kian were all found at the back particularly on the head. Forensic results, both from the PNP and the Public Attorney’s Office prove an indisputable conclusion that Kian was shot in somewhat kneeling/foetal position,” added the panel which said this supports the testimonies of the two witnesses.
In the same report, the panel dismissed the complaints filed against 13 other police officers, including station commander Chief Inspector Amor Cerillo.