Man hurts 4 relatives in hostage taking incident; cops shoot suspect

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines–A 37-year-old man was shot in the legs by the police after he took hostage members of his family and wounded four of them with a sword in Sarangani province on Wednesday night.

Chief Inspector Harid Lingcob, chief of the Malapatan town police station, said the mentally unstable Joseph Pajarillo had asked permission from his elder sister, Celina Ybale, to use her laptop at past 7 p.m. Wednesday but she turned him down.

This drove Pajarillo mad, Lingcob said.

He said Pajarillo, who was also drunk at that time, rushed to get a sword and rounded up four members of his family, including Celina, and two children.

Lingcob said they tried to pacify Pajarillo but he was unyielding and started harming the hostages at around 10 p.m.

“We even asked the help of several people close to him but he also refused to heed their appeal. We then decided to shoot him in both his legs when he started harming his hostages,” he said.

Lingcob said the hostages also suffered varying degrees of injury after Pajarillo thrust the sword on them, but all of them were now out of danger and continue to recuperate in a medical facility.

The suspect was also being treated at another facility.

Lingcob said that based on police records,  Pajarillo was also detained last year on charges of arson. “He has a psychological problem,” he said.