DFA calls for prayers, promises support for Filipino shot in Philadelphia
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 8:59 p.m.) — A Filipino tourist earlier reported killed after being caught in a random shooting incident in Philadelphia is alive but in critical condition, the Department of Foreign Affairs clarified Sunday night.
In a Twitter update on Sunday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. identified the man as John Laylo, a lawyer. Philippine Consulate General in New York Elmer Cato said Laylo was hit in the head by one of six bullets fired at the vehicle he was sharing with his mother.
"We call on kababayan to pray hard with us so that Atty John Laylo, who we have just been informed remains on life support after yesterday’s random shooting incident in Philadelphia, would pull through," Cato said in an update on Sunday night.
In response. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. told Cato to "give him all the help you can, DFA will pay."`
Cato said that Laylo and his mother were on the way to the airport to catch a flight to Chicago at around 4 a.m. when someone shot at the Uber they were in.
"We call on authorities to bring the perpetrator of this crime to justice," he also said.
Laylo’s mother is in a hospital after being "slightly wounded by glass fragments."
The consulate is working on providing assistance to the family. The country’s foreign service post in New York holds jurisdiction over Pennsylvania, which is where the city of Philadelphia is located.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Arriola also said the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs will be on standby for Locsin’s orders and added that they are already coordinating with the consulate.
The shooter has yet to be caught and there is no report of the incident on the Philadelphia Police Department blotter. Calls for limiting access to firearms in the United States have been reignited following a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas last month.
In a June 6 post on the official website of Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney acknowledged that the city has seen an increase in gun violence in recent years.
"We cannot accept continued violence as a way of life in our country. And until we address the availability and ease of access to firearms, we will always be fighting an uphill battle," he also said. — Kaycee Valmonte
(Editor's note: An earlier version of this article reported Laylo's death based on Consul General Cato's statement. Cato has since reported that he had been informed that Laylo is on life support.)
Youth across the United States on Thursday (Philippine time) bowed their heads in honor of the dead and carried signs saying "never again" and "Am I next?" to protest school shootings and ready access to guns in the US, the Associated Press reports.
AP reports: "In a wave of protests one historian called the largest of its kind in American history, tens of thousands of students walked out of their classrooms Wednesday to demand action on gun violence and school safety."
The US mother whose six-year-old child in January shot and severely wounded his teacher pleaded guilty Monday to illegally obtaining the firearm, federal prosecutors said.
Deja Taylor's son brought her gun to school in the southern US state of Virginia on January 6 and fired on his elementary school teacher in the attack.
The teacher was hospitalized for two weeks with injuries to her hand and chest.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement Monday that Taylor had pleaded guilty to "illegally obtaining and possessing a firearm and making a false statement" on a government agency form required to purchase the weapon, carrying a possible sentence of up to 25 years in prison.
Taylor had testified on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) form that she did not consume illegal drugs.
But searches by federal agents of her home and her mother's house, where Taylor was residing at the time, as well as of her phone, revealed the "pervasive scope of Taylor's marijuana use," the statement said.
The agents found "approximately 24.5 grams of marijuana, marijuana edible packaging, and marijuana paraphernalia," at her mother's home.
Virginia has legalized personal cultivation and possession of small amounts of marijuana, but the drug remains illegal at the federal level. — AFP
At least three people were killed and five others wounded in a shootout at a biker rally on Saturday in the US state of New Mexico, local media reported.
The shooting occurred around 5 pm (2300 GMT) as 20,000 bikers took part in an annual Memorial Day motorcycle rally in Red River, a small town near the ski destination of Taos.
In a video interview with local outlet Questa Del Rio News, Red River Mayor Linda Calhoun confirmed the deaths and injuries, and said an unspecified number of suspects had been arrested.
"No law enforcement, no first responders were injured. No local people were injured... It was a gang-related incident," she said, declining to divulge which gangs were believed to be involved.
"The shooters have all been apprehended," she added. — AFP
A shooter opened fire at an outlet mall north of Dallas, Texas on Saturday, and emergency officials confirmed fatalities and said at least nine wounded people were rushed to area hospitals.
Some of the victims were as young as five years old, CNN reported.
A police officer was in the mall on an unrelated call when gunfire broke out around 3:30 pm (2030 GMT), said chief Brian Harvey of the Allen, Texas, police department.
"He heard gunshots, went to the gunshots, engaged the suspect and neutralized the suspect," Harvey said. "He also then called for ambulances." — AFP
At least four people were killed and more than 20 others injured, mostly teens, in a Saturday night shooting at a birthday party in Alabama, officials said, in the latest spasm of American gun mass violence.
Local news reports said the shooting occurred at a Sweet 16 party at a dance studio in Dadeville, a small town northeast of the state capital Montgomery.
"There were four lives tragically lost in this incident, and there's been a multitude of injuries," Sergeant Jeremy Burkett, a spokesman for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), told reporters Sunday.
He specified later that 28 people had been wounded, some of them critically, and urged residents to come forward with any information they might have related to the attack. But Burkett provided no further details on how the shooting unfolded or why. — AFP
At least four people were killed and more than 20 others injured, mostly teens, in a Saturday night shooting at a birthday party in Alabama, officials said, in the latest spasm of American gun mass violence.
Local news reports said the shooting occurred at a Sweet 16 party at a dance studio in Dadeville, a small town northeast of the state capital Montgomery.
"There were four lives tragically lost in this incident, and there's been a multitude of injuries," Sergeant Jeremy Burkett, a spokesman for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), told reporters Sunday.
He specified later that 28 people had been wounded, some of them critically, and urged residents to come forward with any information they might have related to the attack. But Burkett provided no further details on how the shooting unfolded or why. — AFP
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