By: Odeh Favour Adiya
Tragedy struck Ateneo de Zamboanga University, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao, Philippines, on Tuesday, after a ninth-grade student shot his classmate dead and livestreamed the horrific act online before taking his own life.
The incident marks the country’s second school shooting in as many months, sending shockwaves through the local community and raising fresh security concerns.
Regional police spokeswoman Shella Chang while addressing reporters on the incident explained how the shooting unfolded.
“What we know so far is that (the shooter) went to the classroom of our known victim. He shot the victim, and after doing that, he went up to the fifth floor and shot himself,” regional police spokeswoman Shella Chang told AFP.
In a separate statement, Interior Secretary Victor Remulla confirmed that the ninth-grade suspect had livestreamed the entire incident on social media. The alleged shooter’s Facebook account has since been disabled.
Video footage circulated by local media showed the gun barrel moving down a hallway in a manner reminiscent of a first-person shooter video game before being pointed into a classroom and fired.
Following the gunshots, children clad in school uniforms were seen screaming and running frantically toward the exit. It was not immediately clear how many students sustained injuries during the stampede.
The Interior Ministry stated that national police are currently working to “establish the motive behind the shooting, determine the ownership and source of the firearm used, and find out how it was brought inside the school campus”.
As at the time of reporting, police authorities have yet to publicly release the exact ages of the shooter or the victim.
Reacting to the tragic event, Ateneo de Zamboanga President, Father Guillrey Andal, confirmed the two deaths and noted that the school was “deeply saddened” by the shooting while promising full cooperation with security agencies.
“We are in the process of working with the police for us to be able to identify them, so that we can communicate first with their loved ones,” he told reporters outside the school, acknowledging the incident had caused “deep concern and worry”.
“Prior to this, our security team had even been preparing a simulation exercise, precisely because we understand the value to everyone our students, our personnel of safety.”
Though school shootings remain generally rare in the Philippines, this attack comes closely on the heels of a June incident in the central region of the country, where three teenage students were killed and 20 others wounded.
In the wake of that June tragedy, Ateneo de Zamboanga had last month joined several other schools across the country to conduct active shooter drills.
While legal gun ownership remains tightly regulated in the Southeast Asian nation, a massive black market for illegal firearms continues to thrive.
