PNP report: 11 of 13 killed in Atimonan shootout sustained head wounds

Eleven of the thirteen police and civilians killed in the alleged encounter in Atimonan town in Quezon province have at least one gunshot wound to the head, according to findings of the Philippine National Police fact finding team. The PNP fact-finding team report also described the injuries as “extensive and fatal,” a report by Emil Sumangil on "24 Oras" said. The shootout occurred at the second of three checkpoints set up by the police in Barangay Lumutan, Atimonan, on January 6, 2013. Victorino Atienza sustained the most injuries with 16 gunshot wounds, two found in his head. Armando Lescano had 15 gunshot wounds, also two found in his head. Tirso Lontok Jr. and Maximo Pelayo had 14 and 13 gunshot wounds respectively and both had one bullet wound to the head. The target of the checkpoint operation Victor Siman had five gunshot wounds in his body and no bullet wound to the head. SP01 Gruet Montano and 1st Lt. Jim Justiniano both had 8 gunshot wounds with Justiniano sustaining a single wound to the head. Bullet angulars The victims were in a convoy of two Mitsubishi Monteros and were allegedly fired upon by the authorities manning the checkpoint. The first verhicle was riddled with 174 bullets. Based on the angle and direction of 85 of these bullet entry points, the gunmen were either in a sitting or kneeling position. Meanwhile, 52 entry points had an upward angular direction suggesting that the gunmen were lying down on the ground. Fifteen of the entry points on the other hand had a downward angular direction suggesting that the gunmen were on higher ground. Twenty-two are from a perpendicular direction meaning that the gunmen were standing. The second vehicle had 45 bullet entry points. Thiry-five of these were from gunmen who were either in a sitting or kneeling position. Six of these were from an upward and downward direction while four came from gunmen in a standing position. No affidavit submitted Nobody from the side of the Philippine army special forces battalion has submitted an affidavit since they were summoned to the National Bureau of Investigation office. The NBI instead sent a list of questions for them to answer. Among these questions was who approved them to be part of the checkpoint team and who was the commanding officer for the operation. They were also asked by the NBI to surrender their service firearms. — Andrei Medina /LBG, GMA News