SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines - A Bilaan tribal chieftain shot dead his infant son and seriously wounded his wife in a brawl with his drunk in-laws in Tantangan town Saturday night, police said Monday.
The suspect, Stanley Cabel, voluntarily turned himself in to the Tantangan municipal police after the incident.
Investigators said Cabel and members of his family were asleep when three older siblings of his wife, Jocelyn Aton Cabel, barged into their house in Barangay Libas in Tantangan and provoked a fight.
The intruders, Oliver, Jonathan and Enin, all surnamed Aton, wrestled with Cabel when they saw him pull out a pistol from a cabinet.
Cabel accidentally fired two shots as the Atons tried to subdue him, hitting his wife and their 1-year-old son named Carl.
The child, who was hit in the head, died on the spot.
Barangay officials rushed Cabel’s wounded wife to the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital in nearby Koronadal City for medication.
Cabel’s three in-laws scampered away after sensing that responding barangay watchmen were closing in.