Tacloban shooting: Police concerned over teen suspects' chat on avoiding accountability

The top police official in Eastern Visayas expressed concern over the chat exchange between the two teenage shooters at the San Jose National High School in Tacloban City.

According to Ivan Mayrina’s report on “24 Oras,” the two suspects discussed before the shooting how they would not be made accountable under the law because they were minors.

“Nakakabahala din, dahil parang inaaral din nila. Nagbabasa ng batas,” said Police Brig. Gen. Jason Capoy, regional director of the Police Regional Office 8.

(It’s concerning because it seemed they studied it. They were reading the law.)

Police said the 14-year-old shooter fired the gun 34 times and that it was his weapon that killed the three fatalities.

The 9 mm pistol he used was the service firearm of an aunt, who is a police staff sergeant and a lawyer.

The policewoman is now in custody and, in the course of the investigation, said that she once brought the suspect to a firing range and taught him how to shoot.

She said she had left the gun at home.

The 15-year-old suspect used a .38 caliber revolver, which still had five bullets, indicating that he only fired once.

The gun is registered to a security agency in Cebu, where his grandfather was once a guard.

The shooting incident has brought to the fore the debate on proposed amendments in the law to lower the age of criminal responsibility. –NB, GMA News