Tacloban shooting: 14-year-old suspect wanted to be a cop – aunt

MANILA, Philippines – Alias Nash, the 14-year-old suspect in the Tacloban City school shooting, was taken to a firing range by his aunt because he “looked up to” her, Police Staff Sgt. Arla Ray Pacencia said on Wednesday.

During the Senate panel’s investigation into the Tacloban shooting that claimed three lives, Pacencia was asked why she had taken Nash to a firing range.

“He usually told me that he wanted to be a police officer, like me. He looked up [to] me. He wanted to be a police officer, and he asked me to bring him to a firing range,” Pacencia said.

READ: Cebu City eyes active shooter drills after Tacloban school shooting

She clarified beforehand that she only brought Nash to the firing range once.

Still, Sen. Raffy Tulfo pressed that, though not prohibited, it is the responsibility of adults to ensure that minors are not exposed to the practice of gun firing.

READ: Tacloban school shooting aftermath: Probe of student threats

“We adults should be responsible gun owners. We should not expose our minor relatives to guns… and show them guns — much more bringing them to firing ranges so they can see the actual firing of a gun, until they learn how to fire a gun,” Tulfo said in a mix of Filipino and English.

“He learned how to shoot a gun because you took him to the firing range. If you hadn’t taken him and if he hadn’t been exposed to that kind of environment, then things would’ve been different,” he added.

Apart from taking her nephew to a shooting range, it was also Pacencia’s gun, a government-issued 9mm Glock 17, that was supposedly used by Nash during the fatal school shooting.

According to Pacencia, Nash broke into her home and got her firearm.

“Nash unlawfully entered my own house. He forcefully damaged my locker. It was locked, and my house was locked as well. [It was a] plastic locker, and my firearm was inside a gun box,” she said.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who was presiding over the hearing, raised her eyebrow on hearing how the firearm was stored in the first place.

Pacencia herself admitted that the standard protocol is to store guns in a safety vault, but “it was in good faith,” she said, believing it would be safe to leave her firearm in a plastic locker.

Later, Tulfo asked how Nash knew to break into the plastic locker.

To this, the police officer answered: “I have only one locker in my room. Maybe he was looking for some place I could hide items, and that was the only area with a lock.

Hontiveros then urged that standard protocols for gun ownership be followed to prevent the worst-case scenario.

Nash is one of the two suspects in the Tacloban school shooting that led to the death of their schoolmates and the injury of at least 13.

He is currently in the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development following the incident.

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