Boy, 11, hurt as cop's gun goes off

CEBU, Philippines - A police recruit on Field Training Program in Mandaue City voluntarily surrendered to his colleagues after his service firearm went off and hit an 11-year-old boy in sitio Sapa-Sapa, barangay Ibabao, Mandaue City, around 6:30 a.m. yesterday.

PO1 Richard Bayon-on, 30, a native of barangay Obado in Bantayan town, was about to leave for work when the accident happened in the room he rents in the apartment owned by a certain Roberto Garcia.

Bayon-on said he cocked his .45 cal. pistol to chamber the round when it went off. The bullet went through the wall of his room to hit the chest of Lenbert Ginosa, a grade 3 pupil of the Ibabao Elementary School who was still sleeping together with his parents at the time.

Lenbert’s father, Alberto, was awakened by the gunshot and hurriedly sought for help when he saw his son was bleeding from the chest.

He and neighbors rushed the victim to the Mandaue City Hospital. He was later transferred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

PO2 Marino Lofranco of the Mandaue City Police Office Homicide Section said that Bayon-on surrendered himself and his service firearm to Homicide chief George Aniñon after they arrived at the crime scene.

Lofranco also said that as of yesterday afternoon the victim was already in stable condition after the suspect’s classmates pooled funds for his hospitalization and even donated blood for the victim.

The suspect’s surrendered firearm was brought to the PNP Crime Laboratory-7 for a gunpowder residue test while the suspect was also made to undergo a paraffin test.

The suspect is also currently detained at the Subangdaku police station pending the filing of appropriate charges against him. — Flor Z. Perolina/BRP (FREEMAN NEWS)