When can a Law enforcer’s ‘warning shots’ be justified?
When can law enforcement officers fire “warning shots”?
Citing the standard operating procedure of the Philippine National Police, spokesperson Brig. Gen. Randulf Tuaño stated three conditions:
“First, if the PNP member is outnumbered (in a potential gunfight). Second, if they are overpowered. Third, if their life is in danger.”
Tuaño stressed, however, that the criteria applied mainly to PNP personnel since other armed services may have different parameters.
If the individual who fires a “warning shot” is not a police officer, for example, “there is that may govern that particular incident,” he said.
“It may qualify as ‘indiscriminate firing’ under the Revised Penal Code, or possibly ‘alarm and scandal,’” the PNP official added.
Senate incident
On Thursday, the acting chief of the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, Mao Aplasca, admitted that he was the first to fire a warning shot during his team’s standoff with agents of the National Bureau of Investigation the previous night.
Several gunshots followed, and the confrontation ended with no reported injuries.
Aplasca, a former PNP director for operations, is now facing investigation over the shooting incident at the Senate building.
The Office of the Ombudsman on Friday ordered his preventive suspension for six months.
