MANILA — The former policeman who was caught in a viral road rage video pointing a gun at a cyclist after a traffic altercation should have been arrested, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) said Thursday.
"If only the concerned police station [had] investigated it properly, Wilfredo Gonzales should have been put into arrest," NCRPO chief Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. told ANC.
Nartatez said Gonzales made a "clear violation of the law" when he brandished a firearm at the cyclist in Quezon City.
Brig Gen. Nicolas Torre III, chief of the Quezon City Police District, resigned on Thursday for holding a press conference with Gonzales despite public outrage over the road rage clip.
Torre earlier said authorities could no longer arrest Gonzales since the period of warrantless arrest had already lapsed.
"I really regret that press conference. I really regret that deeply. I apologize to the Filipino people for those actions because those are decisions made in a very short span of time," Torre said in a TeleRadyo Serbisyo interview.
"In hindsight, we have 20/20 vision. I could have done it better with the same result pero nangyari na."
The NCRPO chief said there were "lapses" in the way the Quezon City police investigated the incident.