Minor hit by stray bullet, critical

CEBU, Philippines - A 14-year-old Grade 5 student is in critical condition after he was hit by a motorcycle and injured in the head by a stray bullet in Alaska Viking, Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City yesterday dawn.

PO1 Michael Angelo Singson of the Cebu City Police Office Homicide Section said the victim’s mother, Gina Bequilla, 38, narrated that her son went out of the house prior to the incident.

The victim, John Niño Bequilla, is reportedly a trisikad driver and ferries passengers to Pasil.

But the victim’s aunt, Jocelyn Sildora, 35, claimed that the victim was sleeping in his 59-year-old grandmother, Cirila Bequilla’s house at that time.

“Wala man na iyang mama nagpuyo diri. Wala man na siya nag-atiman diri sa iyang anak, akoa mang mama, (His mother is not living here. She is not taking care of her son. It’s my mother who takes care of him),” Sildora said.

She reportedly revealed that the victim woke up at around 2 a.m. due to the noise of cats fighting on their roof. He then went out.

Another aunt of the victim, Justina Bequilla, 21, reported that the 14-year-old boy was having fun playing with the “trisikad” together with his three friends in the said place.

She said that before the shooting incident happened, the victim and his friends were advised to go home due to the chaos but instead of going home, the victim reportedly went back to the area.

She added that the victim’s friends saw that he was already down and wounded. He was reportedly calling his mother for help.

The boy’s uncle immediately brought the victim to the Cebu City Medical Center. Justina revealed that the victim’s brain was severely injured according to his attending physician.

Sildora said that the victim was hit by a motorcycle when he ran away from the chaos.

The relatives of the victim were wondering why the 14-year-old boy sustained a lot of bruises on his body.

Meanwhile, PO1 John Errick Samosa of the Homicide Section reported that the x-ray result shows a crack in the middle part of the victim’s head.

Justina added that the victim had to undergo CT-Scan and surgical operation but they don’t have enough money.

She added that the victim is in critical condition and remains unconscious as of press time.

Meanwhile, a nine-year-old boy was injured after the handgun he found accidentally went off past 5:00 in the afternoon in Barangay Bulangsuran, Samboan town.

Bryll Estañol was injured in his left leg when he accidentally pulled the trigger of the .38 revolver which he found walking on his way home from school.

Estañol was taken to the Malabuyoc District Hospital for medical attention.

PO1 Ramon Catubig, desk officer, said that Estañol, a third grader at the Bulangsuran Elementary School, found the revolver at a grassy portion of the road.

The boy picked up the revolver and checked thinking it was a toy gun.

“Nagtuo siguro siya nga duwaan…iya sigurong gilubag-lubag unya gikablit, (He may have thought it was a toy, played with it and then squeezed the trigger),” Catubig said in a phone interview.

A loud burst rang out and Estañol was already bleeding.  His parents took him to the hospital and then turned over the revolver to the police station.

Catubig added the revolver had only one bullet as they found one slug in the cylinder.

Police are now conducting an investigation to determine who owns the gun or if somebody intentionally threw it in the said area.

“Dugay na man ang armas kay tayaun na pero wa pa ilhi kung kang kinsa, (The gun is old and rusty but we don’t know yet who owns it),” Catubig said. —(BANAT NEWS)