TACURONG CITY – Police shot dead a man wanted for violations of the anti-drug law after he attempted to pull off the safety pin of a hand grenade he was holding during a pre-dawn law enforcement operation Monday in the Sultan Kudarat town of Lambayong.
Chief Supt. Eliseo Tam Rasco, police director for Central Mindanao said a team of police and Army personnel were serving a search warrant on Fernando Orpilla Jr. at 2:30 a.m. in Barangay Poblacion, Lambayong, but the latter refused and tried to lob a hand grenade on the authorities.
“Our troops repeatedly appealed to him to peacefully surrender, to no avail,” Rasco said.
When the troops entered his room, Orpilla held a homemade pistol in his right hand aimed at authorities and a hand grenade on the other, Rasco said.
A policeman shot him in his leg to immobilize him but, Rasco said, Orpilla pulled the safety pin of the grenade, forcing law enforcers to “neutralize him.”
Crime scene operatives recovered a home-made pistol with a 20-gauge shotgun bullet, a fragmentation grenade, and three empty shells for 9mm pistol fired by law enforcers. (PNA)
