Stray bullet kills boy

An eight-year-old boy was hit by a stray bullet reportedly fired by a Manila policeman following a traffic altercation with a motorist in Tondo, Manila yesterday morning.

Jerwin Turalba, a Grade 2 pupil at the Lacson Elementary School, and a resident of Balut, Tondo, was declared dead at 12:47 p.m. by Dr. Rafael Fernandez of Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center (JRMMC), some three hours after the incident.

Turalba was first brought to the Tondo General Hospital but was transferred to the JRMMC due to the gravity of his head wound.

Meanwhile, another victim, identified as Archibald Bernardo, 28, a businessman also from Balut, Tondo, was still under observation at the Tondo General Hospital for bullet wounds on his left shoulder and right arm as of press time yesterday.

The suspect, PO2 Bernardino Cruz, 37, surrendered to his superior, Superintendent Rolando Miranda, after the shooting incident.

In his report to Manila Police District director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales, Miranda said Cruz and Bernardo on board their respective motorcycles figured in a traffic altercation at the corner of Alfonso and Nepa streets in Tondo at around 9:30 a.m.

The two reportedly fired at each other, hitting the boy who was flying a kite, according to Miranda’s report. The wounded Bernardo however managed to escape, Miranda said.

Witnesses said though that there was no gunfight and it was only Cruz who fired at Bernardo as the latter failed to draw his gun after he was hit in the initial volley of gunfire.

The two has reportedly been at odds since their parents clashed in the last barangay elections, according to residents. Bernardo’s father who was the former baransgay chairman lost to Cruz’s mother.

Police recovered four shells from an unknown firearm at the scene of the crime. Cruz had been subjected to paraffin and drug tests yesterday but his gun is still to be subjected to ballistic test pending the turnover of the firearm to the homicide section, according to Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr.

Charges of frustrated murder and reckless imprudence resulting in homicide are now being prepared against Cruz, Arevalo said.