Banga National High School shooter part of 'true crimes community, says mayor

The student shooter was reportedly part of a “true crimes community" which may have led him to copy other shooting incidents, according to Banga Mayor Albert Palencia on Friday.

Speaking on DZBB, Palencia said that the shooter had gotten the gun after breaking into his father’s vault. His father was a Department of Education employee.

“Napag-alaman din ng pulis natin kanina na yung bata ay miyembro pala ng true crimes community. Yung namamaril sa mga eskwelahan. Parang ginaya-gaya yung nangyari sa ibang eskwelahan,” Palencia said.

(Our police found out that the kid is a member of a true crimes community. The ones who shoot up schools. It is like he copied what happened in the other schools.)

Palencia said that this is an internet group. The suspect had several posts in the community.

The suspect “idolized” other school shooters, the mayor said.

Before the South Cotabato school shooting, there was a similar incident in a Tacloban high school, which killed three students.

Almost two months after this, there was another shooting incident in Ateneo de Zamboanga which claimed two lives, including the shooter himself.

The Senate had tackled the issues of Nihilistic Violent Extremism proliferating in online spaces following the first two shootings, with many officials believing that it had a role in the two cases. –NB, GMA News