Three students are dead and seven wounded after two teenagers opened fire inside a high school in the central Philippines, an attack police believe was driven by a “grudge” over bullying.
The suspects, aged 14 and 15, walked into a classroom at San Jose National High School in Tacloban city and “without saying anything, they started firing,” Colonel Allen Rae Co, the national police spokesperson, told reporters on Monday. About 40 empty shells were recovered from the scene.
“Two teens opened fire in a Philippine classroom, killing three students over a bullying grudge, police say.”
One suspect was arrested immediately after the attack; the second later surrendered. They were armed with a .38 revolver and a 9mm pistol. The 9mm belonged to a policewoman who is a relative of one of the suspects, police said. She is now in custody.
Investigators said “red flags” in the teens’ behaviour had been missed. Co alleged that violent videos of one of the suspects firing a gun had been found on his social media. “So this is very obviously red flags … we’re not putting blame on anybody, but if anybody was able to monitor these red flags, this could have been prevented,” he said.
The attack left three students dead and three wounded by gunshots. Four more were injured while trying to flee, according to Co. It remains unclear whether the intended targets were in that classroom.
Outside the school, Jennelyn Badoria, mother of a slain 15-year-old student, demanded accountability. “I’m asking that the gun owners be charged, because the guns wouldn’t have ended up in the children’s hands if it weren’t for them,” she told Agence France-Presse.
Evalyn Diaz from the city police said this was the first school shooting in Tacloban in recent memory. “We call on parents who have firearms to be more responsible, hide their firearms, make sure those are properly hidden, talk to their children,” Diaz said.
President Ferdinand Marcos’s spokeswoman, Claire Castro, said the president was “saddened by what happened”. “Anyone, especially the parents of the victims, would feel grief and fear,” she told reporters. The education ministry expressed “deep concern” and called for prayers for those affected, announcing a review of safety measures with police.
Gun violence is not uncommon in the Philippines, but school shootings are extremely rare.