A three-year-old boy was killed after he was hit by a stray bullet fired from a gun during an anti-drugs operation of the police in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City past 1 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10.
Bladen Skyler Abatayo was rushed to the Cebu City Medical Center but was declared dead on arrival.
Senior Insp. John Kareen Escober, chief of the Carbon Police Station, said they received a report regarding a group of men who allegedly had a pot session in one of the shanties in Sitio Bato, Ermita.
When they arrived in the area, members of the Drug Enforcement Unit noticed that one of the suspects had a gun, prompting one operatives to grapple for the gun.
The operatives later learned that a boy, who was studying inside a nearby shanty, was hit by a bullet on his chest.
The four drug suspects escaped, Escober said.
“I believe it was one of the suspects who fired the shot that killed the boy. There is no need to conduct a ballistic examination of the service firearms of the operatives since none of them fired a shot during the operation,” he added.