4-year-old boy shoots self

A four-year-old boy reportedly shot himself dead with an improvised shotgun he was playing with inside their house Saturday night in Caloocan City.

Police identified the victim as Don Raymond Sering of Phase 12, Block 86, Riverside Subdivision in Barangay Tala. Police prober PO1 Joselito Bagting said the incident occurred at around 8 p.m. while the boy was playing with another four-year-old child, identified only as Eton.

Bagting said that the boy’s mother, Esperanza, told investigators that she was busy attending to her kitchen chores when her child came in carrying a steel pipe with his playmate Eton.

Unknown to Esperanza, the steel pipe, around 20 inches long, Raymond and Eton were toying with, was an improvised shotgun or sumpak.

Moments later Esperanza heard a gunshot and when she checked she saw Eton running outside their house leaving her son slumped on the floor bleeding from a blasted chest.

"The wound was really horrible," Bagting said.

Esperansa rushed her child to the Dr. Jose Rodriguez Hospital but was declared dead on arrival by attending physician Dr.Leo Ibarba.

The boy’s father, Rolando, a security guard was not around when the incident happened, Bagting said.

"We are still investigating how the young boys got hold of the gun," Bagting said.

The boy’s body was brought to the St. Matthew Funeral Homes for autopsy. — Pete Laude