Stray bullet kills child

A Seven-year-old boy died last Saturday after he was hit by a stray bullet fired by one of two men chasing a 17-year-old boy, who was believed to be involved in illegal drugs, in Sitio Latasan, Barangay Cansaga, Consolacion town in northern Cebu.

San Niño Batucan, who was wounded in the stomach, was rushed to the Eversley Children’s Sanitarium and General hospital, but he was later transferred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) where doctors declared him dead on arrival, said PO1 Rechie Gilleran of the Consolacion Police Station.

Investigation showed that the 17-year-old boy was hanging out with his 17-year-old girlfriend at the Cansaga river bank at past 8 p.m. when two men, who were wearing bonnets, arrived in a motorcycle and stopped in front of the two teenagers.

The backrider got off and pulled out a gun and fired at the teenagers, who ran for their lives.

The man chased them and continued firing at them, but the teenagers managed to escape unscathed.

Gilleran said the seven-year-old boy at that time was watching television with his parents inside their home, when a stray bullet, fired from the gunman’s gun, hit him in the stomach.

Gilleran said after failing to kill the two teenagers, the assailants fled the area.

Senior Insp. William Homoc, Consolacion Police Station chief, said the 17-year-old boy, who was the target of the two men, was believed to be selling illegal drugs in the area.

Homoc claimed that he received information that the 17-year-old boy allegedly failed to remit the proceeds of selling shabu from his supplier from a neighboring barangay.