A 15-YEAR-OLD boy and four other minors, aged between 15 and 17, are behind bars for allegedly shooting to death a 16-year-old boy in front of Tejero Elementary School along M.J. Cuenco Ave., Cebu City last Friday night.
A father of one of the five youngsters was also arrested for threatening to kill and challenging a team of policemen to a fistfight when they came looking for his son.
During an interrogation, John (real name withheld for being a minor) allegedly owned up to the crime, saying the attack served as a retaliation against the victim, identified as Jude Christian T. Bayonas.
John reportedly confided to PO3 Geoffrey Gutual, a Homicide Section investigator, that Bayonas mauled him sometime in 2005; he has since harbored a grudge against the victim.
Bayonas, a third year high school student and a resident of the neighboring Barangay Tinago, died before reaching the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for gunshot wounds in the chin, chest and right abdomen.
The five teenagers are detained at the detention cell for minors at the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO). The father, on the other hand, is at the Waterfront Police Station.
The shooting happened at 8:45 p.m. Friday, shortly after Bayonas came out of his classroom after taking an examination, initial investigation conducted by a team of Homicide Section investigators led by SPO2 Rey Cuyos revealed.
Bayonas was walking toward the school’s main gate when he was allegedly shot thrice by the suspects.
The five boys fled toward T. Padilla St.
A team of Mobile Patrol Group and Waterfront Police Station operatives who received the alarm arrested the suspects in a follow-up operation.
Members of the CCPO’s Crime Scene Investigation Unit, on the other hand, recovered a slug from an undetermined caliber.
Cuyos said a complaint for murder will be filed against the suspects once the evidence and documents are completed.
As for the father, he will be charged with direct assault tomorrow. (JTG)