Bacolod HS student critically shot by schoolmate

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – A third-year high school student here was shot in the head by a schoolmate in their campus last Thursday afternoon, police said.

The victim, whose identity was withheld as he is a minor, is now in serious condition at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, with the bullet still lodged in his head, said Inspector Jovy Cabcaban of the Women’s and Children’s Complaints Desk of the city police.

Doctors told the boy’s family that he might die if the bullet is removed from his head at this time, Cabcaban said.

Cabcaban said police would file a case of frustrated homicide against the suspect, a 17-year-old second-year transferee student at the Barangay Singcang-Airport National High School.

Although the suspect is a minor, Cabcaban said they would leave it up to the prosecutor’s office to decide on his fate.

They are only awaiting the affidavit of the victim’s father before the case is filed, she said.

Investigation showed the suspect came to school with two unidentified adult companions and they were supposedly looking for another student, Cabcaban said.

When the victim intervened, one of the suspect’s adult companions punched him, and when he tried to retaliate, the suspect took out an improvised shotgun and shot him in the head, Cabcaban said.

The suspect and his companions immediately fled, leaving behind the knapsack where the firearm and a bladed weapon were placed, Cabcaban said.

A security guard of the school told police that he did not see the gun and the bladed weapon when the suspect and his adult companions entered the campus, Cabcaban said.

Policemen went to the suspect’s residence but he was not there, she said.