LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – A 19 year-old girl was hit by a stray bullet that went through the roof of their house in Lagangilang, Abra on December 29, police reported Monday.
Police said that the victim identified as Jasmine Cabintoy, a resident of Sitio Sabangan, Barangay Nagtupacan, was hit by a .45 caliber pistol's bullet in her right leg.
Cabintoy was the sixth victim of injuries recorded in Cordillera since the government activated its firecracker injury monitoring last December 21.
Cordillera regional police spokesman, Chief Inspector Byron Allatog, said Cabintoy was sleeping inside her room when she was hit by the stray bullet.
Cabintoy was rushed to the Abra Provincial Hospital in Bangued, the province’s capital, where physicians found one slug of a caliber .45 pistol from her leg.
Allatog said that investigations are ongoing to determine the identity of the firearm's owner. He said that villagers claimed hearing a gunfire coming from the east of Barangay Nagtupacan.
Meanwhile, Cordillera police director Chief Superintendent Benjamin Magalong sternly warned all policemen in the region against firing their guns to welcome the Year of the Water Snake.
In ceremonial gun muzzle taping rites at the regional headquarters of the police at Camp Dangwa the other day and at the Baguio City police, Magalong said he will order the immediate dismissal from service of any policeman who would be found firing his gun during the New Year's reverlries.