Cops involved in Sulu shooting test positive for powder burns

Four out of nine members of the Jolo police involved in shooting four Army men fired guns, results of initial investigation conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) showed.

According to John Consulta's report on "24 Oras," the four officers tested positive in a paraffin test, which can find gunshot residue on the suspects, while gun shells recovered from the crime scene also matched the firearms held by the officers.

"Four firearms from the PNP had matched the recovered empty shells from the crime scene,"  NBI Deputy Director Antonio Pagatpat said.

"The ballistics examination is still on-going, so it would depend now whether there would be additional matches from the empty shells against the firearms," he added.

One of the things the NBI is looking into is the trajectory of the ammunition to determine who shot the soldiers.

The nine policemen will be called to the office of the NBI next week to get their statements regarding the shooting.

The NBI has also taken hold of the CCTV footage of the shooting. However, this will still be inspected by the digital forensic lab of the NBI.

"Bina-validate pa 'yung source kung hindi ito altered, hindi ito modified, walang tampering dito at pagkatapos nito, ng authentication, ay ifo-forward ito sa Manila upang i-process ng aming digital forensics," NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin said.

On June 29, four military personnel were killed by cops in Jolo while working on an intelligence operation on two suicide bombers. —Joahna Lei Casilao/LDF, GMA News