EDITORIAL - Not the usual suspect

Police recently arrested someone they suspected shot dead a 44-year-old woman last week in Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City.

But he wasn’t one of the “usual suspects”. What was unusual about him was his age. At just 15 years old he is just three years into his teens and another three less than what is legally considered the age of discernment.

Despite being that young, police said they suspect he was already doing the bidding of a drug syndicate as a hitman; they even found him with a .45 cal. pistol. He allegedly carried out the suspected drug-related hit in Duljo-Fatima with two others whom police are still looking for.

The most trouble we expect from 15-year-olds is practically what we call teen drama; they either turn rebellious, suffer heartbreak, or get into trouble in school, practically what people that age go through. Yes, sometimes they even fall into the wrong group of friends or associates and pick up vices. But being a hitman and scoring the first kill --if he was indeed part of that crime-- at that age? It’s almost one for the movies, and those that don’t have a good ending.

Is this the case of someone falling into bad influence? Or someone being seduced by the glamour of a life in the criminal underworld as portrayed in movies and TV shows? Or someone lacking guidance from adults? Or is this someone who just had no choice but to fall into a life of crime very early in life?

We hope this is an isolated case. Because if it isn’t then that would mean even the very young are already being seduced by false glitz or being pushed by desperation to join such groups.

But then again, we look at how some of our young have turned to vices at a tender age, at how some no longer think about the long-term consequences of their actions, at how some of them are angrier at the world than their parents ever were, and at how some parents are also no longer guiding their children properly.

We have reason to be worried.