Two days ago, we told you about 26-year-old Joel Choco. He's the man Lords Bank police caught with a cop's gun.
As we reported, when the officers stopped the bus and searched it, they encountered Choco, who attempted to escape through the backdoor. When the officers intercepted him, he allegedly pulled a firearm from his waist and pointed it at one of the cops. That officer fired a warning which caused Choco to drop the weapon, leading to his arrest.
As we told you, the officers later realized the weapon he pulled was actually a police-issued firearm, which went missing.
Last night, the department sent out a statement saying that the officer who misplaced this weapon was PC Marcus Locarno. He reported to his superiors that on Saturday, he went to MJ's Night Club to perform special duty with his police-issued 9mm pistol, loaded with 14 live rounds of ammunition. At around 4 a.m. the following day, he took a ride on a motorcycle with a co-worker to the Prosecution Branch. That's when he realized that the firearm was missing, and he could only remember sitting on a chair and falling asleep. When his superiors asked him to hand in the weapon, he couldn't produce it, and he was unsure if he had arrived at the prosecution branch with the firearm.
On Friday, PC Locario appeared in front of a disciplinary tribunal to answer to a single charge of loss by neglect. That tribunal delivered its decision yesterday that Locario should pay a fine of two hundred dollars. The tribunal also handed him a surcharge of three thousand two hundred and twelve dollars, the firearm's value and ammunition.
Joel Choco, the man who was found with the missing police weapon, was arraigned today in the Magistrate Court on the offenses of aggravated assault with a firearm, keeping an unlicensed weapon, and keeping unlicensed ammunition. Since these are gun-related offenses, the magistrate remanded him to Prison until January 23rd of next year.
