A high school student carrying two pistols shot to death a fellow student before killing himself in an attack in a southern Philippine high school campus that he livestreamed using a body-worn camera, police and other officials said.
It was the second fatal school shooting in the country in just two months.
Hundreds of students were evacuated after shots rang out in the high school building of the Ateneo de Zamboanga university campus in the southern port city of Zamboanga, yesterday.
Two other people were injured, police and city officials said.
The suspect, identified by police as Grade 9 student Mohammad Mael Jalani, fired at a teacher sitting in front of a class but apparently missed.
He then shot a student on the fourth floor of the building before going up one floor and killing himself, police said in an initial report.
“He entered and started indiscriminately firing, hitting a Grade 10 student at the fourth floor then subsequently went to the fifth floor and jumped from the said building and committed suicide,” Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla told reporters.
“He showed this on Facebook Live starting when he was climbing up the stairs but there were only snippets,” Remulla said.
“We’ll look into his gaming history and his chat history so we cannot come up with a complete answer why this happened until we do a complete forensic analysis.”
Zamboanga city Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso and the police said the suspect shot himself.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered law enforcement agencies to investigate and to determine measures to be taken to prevent violence in schools.
“Our schools are where we entrust our children to learn, to grow and to dream about the lives ahead of them.
“They must also be among the safest places in our country,” Marcos said in a statement yesterday.
The high school building, where the gun attack happened, is in a secured campus, separate from a larger campus of the privately owned Catholic university where its colleges and professional schools are located in Zamboanga.
One of the largest and most prestigious universities in the south, Ateneo suspended classes at all levels yesterday and today following the attack.
Joe Darryl Jaron has just driven his child to the school when he heard the gunshots that prompted students to scream in panic and dash to safety.
He took a video of the commotion and posted it on Facebook.
“There are gunshots here in Ateneo, help! help,” he said.
A few hours after the shooting, police said the situation was under control.
They asked parents and guardians of students to remain calm and follow the high school’s advice and arrangements to pick up their children.
“Authorities are currently establishing the circumstances surrounding the incident,” national police chief Gen Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr said.
The police “will provide verified information as appropriate and appeals to the public to refrain from sharing unconfirmed reports, photos or videos that may cause unnecessary concern.”
The national police “assure the public that the safety and well- being of the school community remain a priority. We thank the school administration, parents, guardians and the community for their patience, cooperation and understanding as authorities continue to manage the situation,” Nartatez said.
One of the pistols carried by the suspect came from his father, who was the Bureau of Customs police commander in Zamboanga, Bureau of Customs deputy commissioner Nolasco Bathan told reporters.
He added that he recommended the temporary suspension of the father, who may face administrative charges for failing to properly safeguard the government- issued pistol.
The shooting happened despite police assurances that security in schools across the country would be strengthened after a shooting in June in which three high school students were killed and at least 20 others were wounded in central Tacloban city.
Police arrested two students, ages 14 and 15, and accused them of carrying out that shooting.
Crimes involving the use of firearms are prevalent in the Philippines, partly due to the proliferation of unlicensed firearms, but school shootings are relatively rare.
Days after the school shooting in Tacloban, Philippine authorities said they temporarily blocked an online gaming app to assess whether it played a role in fostering such violence.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center said its decision to indefinitely block Gorebox was prompted by an ongoing police investigation which showed that one suspect was an avid user of the app.
The shooting in the Philippines also occurred less than two weeks after a school shooting in Thailand.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul took steps to restrict guns in the South-East Asian country after a 14-year-old boy killed his grandparents, five school staff members and a 12-year-old girl in Nonthaburi province outside Bangkok.
Thailand’s high rate of gun ownership is second only to Pakistan in Asia, and far surpasses its South-East Asian neighbours. — AP/Reuters
