Medico legal: Espinosa either standing or lying down when shot

All four gunshot wounds on the body of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa showed the bullets' "upward trajectory," though it cannot be concluded yet whether he was standing or lying down when shot.

According to Chief Supt. Benjamin Lara, medico legal of the police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), four gunshot wounds were found on Espinosa's body — two on the chest area and two on the abdominal area.

Lara noted that only one of the four bullets that hit Espinosa, a suspected drug lord, exited his body.

Asked if the mayor was sitting down or standing when he was shot, he said the autopsy report showed both were "possible."

"There are two possible positions. One, the victim could be on a vertical position—he is standing—and the tip of the gun is on the lower body of the victim," he said. "Or it could also be that the assailant is standing and the victim is lying down."

Espinosa was shot dead in the wee hours of November 5 after he allegedly engaged policemen, who were serving a search warrant to him and another detainee, in a firefight.

Lara declined to answer whether the bullets that hit Espinosa were from the same gun. "From experience, your honor, I would say all three fired bullets have the same caliber and all were full metal jacket type of bullets," he said.

Aside from the gunshot wounds, Espinosa had a "lacerated wound" on the left temporal region of his head, he added.

Lara said, however, that "there were no markings" on Espinosa's body "to indicate that this was a close-range or intermediate-range type of gunshot wounds."

Since Espinosa was clothed at the time, Lara said he submitted the shirt to their laboratory in Ormoc City, Leyte, to check for presence of gunpowder residue, amid claims that the mayor fired at operatives. —KBK, GMA News