• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A police officer was allegedly shot to death by his own seven-year-old son during a heated argument with his partner at home in Purok Eba, Barangay Andres Bonifacio, Sagay City, Negros Occidental on Saturday (April 27).
PStaff Sgt. Lernie Alacha, 44, a member of the Sagay City Police Station, died on the spot with a neck injury, according to initial police investigation.
Alacha reportedly got jealous when he learned that his live-in partner, Irene Dayanan, 33, has numerous followers in her Tiktok social media account.
While in a heated argument inside their room, the victim expressed to harm himself and the couple’s fight led to physical violence.
The seven-year-old boy, watching his parents fighting, supposedly took his father’s service firearm, a caliber 9mm Glock, from a plastic box placed just outside the room.
He then entered the room and fired at his father.
The minor is now in the custody of the Women and Children Protection Desk while further investigation is ongoing.
In an interview with Aksyon Radyo Bacolod, Dayanan said the victim was jealous because some of her social media followers are messaging her.
Dayanan said their fight became violent in front of their children.
Aside from the seven-year-old boy, they also have a 12-year-old adopted son.
PLt. Col. John Mocyat, Sagay City Police chief, said that all the people inside the house during the incident underwent a paraffin test while the body of Alacha was subjected to an autopsy examination.
PBrig. Gen. Jack Wanky, police regional director of Western Visayas, has ordered a thorough investigation of the incident, pointing out that he does not believe the boy was capable of shooting his own father.
“All persons inside the house should be considered as persons of interest in relation to the incident,” Wanky said in a separate radio interview.
He added that the circumstances of the crime are “still not clear”.
“There is the possible angle of suicide and the fastest excuse is to point to the child as the suspect because he cannot be prosecuted as he is still a minor,” Wanky said. | GB
