Girl, 14, survives accidental shooting

CEBU, Philippines – A 14-year-old girl survived a gunshot wound to the chest after she was accidentally shot by an eight-year-old boy who was playing with a homemade .22 cal. pistol last Thursday afternoon in Barangay Apas.

Mary Jie Carbos, a 3rd year high school student, happened to pass by the house of the boy around 5 p.m., while looking for her younger sibling when the bullet hit her chest. She said she just suddenly felt a pain in her upper chest and saw that she was bleeding.

The boy was then at a small alley outside their house playing with the gun he allegedly found nearby.

The boy, upon realizing that the victim had been hit, asked forgiveness by saying "sorry ate" then ran inside their house as he was scared of what he had done.

The victim was then rushed by her parents to the Perpetual Soccour Hospital. She is now in safe condition.

Personnel of the Mobile Patrol Group responded to the alarm and retrieved the weapon from the victim's mother who secured the gun left behind by the boy. An empty shell of the same caliber was later recovered from the crime scene.

The suspect's parents, along with the victim's parents, then turned him over to the Gender and Development office of the said barangay for proper disposition.

SPO4 Alex Dacua, the lead investigator, said the boy will undergo a number of lectures at GAD which would take about several days. It would be GAD's discretion then what to do with the child but usually, Dacua said, the child is later released.

"Wala man siya'y criminal liability kay eight years old pa man gud siya," he said.

When asked how he got the gun, the boy reportedly told Dacua that he only found it near their house.

"Para nako, di ko mutuo. Pagtubag niya adto, wa na lang ko magpadayon og pangutana kay kahibaw kong gi-briefing na 'to siya nya gi-ayo pud nako to siya'g am-am ug storya kay under the state of shock pa to siya," Dacua said.

The proliferation of loose firearms has been a problem of the police in Cebu and Police Regional Office-7 director Ager Ontog made the accounting of loose firearms one of his top priorities. - Niña G. Sumacot and Junalyn S. Rufin, USJR Masscom intern/BRP (FREEMAN)