Boy killed, parents wounded as irate neighbor shoots up house

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A 9-year-old boy was killed and his parents wounded when an irate neighbor peppered their house in a mountain village on the outskirts of Cebu City with bullets on Wednesday night, police said.

A homicide investigator identified the fatality as Jasper Ceniza, a Grade 3 pupil of Guba Elementary School, who was pronounced dead on arrival at the Guba Emergency Hospital from a gunshot wound in the chest.

The boy’s parents — Reynaldo Ybañez, 38, a farmer, and common-law wife Cristina Ceniza, 27 — were wounded in the right thigh and left leg , respectively. They were also taken to the Guba Emergency Hospital but were transferred later to the Cebu City Medical Center, said Police Officer 3 Geoffrey Gutual of the Cebu City Police Office homicide section.

Gutual said two other children of the couple were unhurt.

Gutual reported Ybañez as saying that he, his wife, and their three children were sleeping on the floor of their house in Sitio Kabulihan when they were roused past 9 p.m. by the sound of gunfire. He counted at least five shots.

Ybañez told the police he crawled to the door and saw the gunwielder, his neighbor, Junrey Andrecoso, 31, running away. The neighbor held a grudge against Ybañez following a heated argument last Sunday after Ybanez’s son Jasper was bitten by Andrecoso’s dog , the investigator said.

Ybañez had threatened to kill the dog, he added.

Andrecoso initially denied he shot up Ybañez’s house but eventually admitted doing so, saying he only wanted to threaten Ybañez and had no intention of killing anyone, Gutual said.

Gutual said the police would file murder and  frustrated murder charges against Andrecoso, who was being held at the Cebu City Police Office detention cell.

Gutual said police recovered the gun used in the crime, a .45 caliber pistol which was buried in Andrecoso’s backyard.