Reenactment confirms Skyler autopsy results

Ligaya Banawan, forensic artist of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Manila together with NBI-7 agents, take measurements of the abandoned two-storey house where a police operation resulted in the death of a four-year-old child, who was hit by a stray bullet in Sitio Bato, Barangay Ermita.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

A reenactment of the police operation which led to the killing of a four-year-old child by a stray bullet showed that the calculation of the trajectory of the bullet matched the findings of the autopsy report of the child’s body.

Forensic investigators from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Head Office who are assisting the probe into the circumstances behind the death of Bladen Skyler Abatayo, visited the area where the police operation took place.

“Makita nato ang (We can see the) overall situation based sa giistorya sa witness (on the testament of a witness), ma-validate nato,” NBI-7 Assistant Regional Director Dominador Cimafranca said.

The forensic team went to the house adjoining that of the Abatayo family at Sitio Bato, Barangay Ermita in Cebu City.

They did measurements and examined the bullet hole on the wooden wall of Skyler’s parents’ room, where the child was when he was hit by a bullet on his chest.

“We are doing a crime scene investigation, at the same time we are taking measurements of the place. Ang trajectory sa bullet gi-compare nako sa autopsy report,” Dr. Rene Cam, NBI-7 medico-legal officer, said.

Based on their investigation, the trajectory of the bullet fit the autopsy examination of Bladen Skyler’s body.

“Sa trajectory sa autopsy report, was directed backwards and upwards which, sa diha atong natan-aw ( we saw) is the same. Nagkuha mi bata almost the same height, among gipaluhod, parehas gyod ang measurement and trajectory,” Cam cited the reenactment conducted by the NBI.

(We asked a child of the same height and asked him to kneel, the measurements and trajectory were the same)

The bullet was going in an upward direction, Cam added.

Witnesses believe that the policeman from Carbon Police Station slipped on the stairs in the abandoned house causing his gun to fire, accidentally hitting the child.

Abatayo was killed by a stray bullet from a gun during a police anti-drug operation last July 10.

The child had just finished doing his homework and was practicing to write his name when a bullet struck him on his chest. He was a nursery student.

The police were responding to a tip that a group of men were having a pot session in the two-storey abandoned house next to the Abatayos.

Senior Insp. John Kareen Escober, chief of the Carbon Police Station, had earlier said that the gun that killed the child was that of the suspects and none of his personnel fired their firearms.

The four police officers involved in the operation underwent ballistic examination and a paraffin test which turned out negative.

Cam said they have yet to submit a final report which will be submitted to NBI – 7 Regional Director Lawyer Patricio Bernales Jr.