Grade school pupil stabs teener dead

Western Police District (WPD) policemen are hunting down a 15-year-old grade six pupil for the knife slaying of a 17-year-old boy atop a bridge in Pandacan, Manila, Sunday night, right in front of the victim’s helpless friends.

The suspect, said to be a pupil of C. Salvador Elementary School in Paco, Manila, stabbed Roderick Militante, 17, in the chest and fled, leaving his victim behind, who managed to take a few steps away and then collapsed.

Militante was brought to the Ospital ng Maynila where he was pronounced dead by doctors upon arrival, the police said.

Based on the investigation of Police Officer 3 Anthony Galang of the WPD Homicide Unit, the victim was talking to some of his friends at the P. Guerrero Bridge on the boundary of Pandacan and Paco, Manila about 7:30 p.m. when the suspect suddenly appeared and immediately stabbed Militante.

The suspect reportedly fled to the direction of Paco after the stabbing while Militante, a resident of Kahilum street, Pandacan wobbled in the opposite direction, instinctively trying to escape.

The suspect is believed to have brought with him the bladed weapon used in the attack.

Galang said in his report the suspect and the victim had known each other since childhood but did not say why the boy was harboring a grudge against Militante. It could also not be determined immediately what precipitated the killing.

As this developed, a 22-year-old man, who had just arrived from Leyte to look for a job in Metro Manila, was found dead early Monday in a shanty on Capulong street, Tondo with a gunshot wound in his face. He was apparently shot dead in his sleep. – Jose Aravilla