Hostages slain by friendly Hostages slain by friendly 09/10/2010

Hostages slain by friendly Hostages slain by friendly
09/10/2010

The head of the fact-finding body into the bloody outcome of the Aug. 23 hostage taking of Hong Kong residents in a tourist bus admitted for the first time the possibility that police may have shot some of the tourists in a bungled operation that left eight hostages dead.

Justice Secertary Leila de Lima, chairman of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) raised yesterday the possibility that some of the injured survivors and casualties in the bloody incident were shot by police during the assault that also killed hostage taker dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza after an 11-hour standoff.

De Lima said the investigation found dis-crepancies in testimonies and evidence gathered during their five-day clarificatory hearings in determining if the victims were shot at close range.

Armed with an assault rifle and a pistol, sacked policeman Rolando Men-doza took a busload of tourists hostages in a desperate bid to clear himself of extortion charges and get his old job back.

Eight of the tourists were killed and seven others were injured in the standoff. Police initially insisted the bullets that killed the tourists were all fired from Mendoza’s guns. Other bullets were fired into the bus by police snipers and an assault unit but they did not lead to fatalities, they had said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100910hed4.html