The Public Attorney’s Office’s (PAO) Forensic Lab director, Erwin Erfe, said today that the scene where 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz was allegedly killed looked staged.
In a report by Rappler, Erfe said: “The vegetation was undisturbed, the soil was undisturbed. We were also unable to find slugs. Our conclusion – and there were no traces of blood too – is that it was a secondary crime scene.”
His team investigated an area in C-3 road where Arnaiz’s encounter with the police allegedly took place. The investigation was done yesterday, three weeks after the incident happened.
Another sign indicating the scene may have been set up after the fact is the lack of bullet marks on a wall where the shootout allegedly happened. Erfe told Rappler that there should have also been bullet tracks on the top soil if Arnaiz was indeed shot facing up, a situation the Philippine National Police crime laboratory considered.
The Northern Police District (NPD) Crime Laboratory told reporters yesterday that Arnaiz was shot five times, confirming an earlier autopsy report by PAO.
The NPD Crime Laboratory said yesterday that no slugs were found in the body, which logic dictates would mean they passed through and exited cleanly, but yesterday’s PAO investigation of the crime scene found no slugs in the vicinity.
Police have said that Arnaiz was killed in a shootout with police after trying to rob a taxi driver, but discrepancies have been found in the driver’s two statements.
Driver Tomas Marleo Bagcal first said that he was robbed near the barangay hall of Barangay 128 in Caloocan at 3am, but later said the robbery happened on the C-3 road — a few minutes away from the first location mentioned — at 3:20am.
But National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Oscar Albayalde insisted that there is “not much discrepancy” in the time element.
Bagcal also first said that the police chased “suspects,” but in a second statement said there was only “one suspect.”
Arnaiz was found in a morgue in Caloocan City 10 days after he went missing. He is said to have left his house on Aug. 17 to get snacks with 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman.
On Tuesday, Reynaldo was found dead in Nueva Ecija, about 89km away from Caloocan City.
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