When Shiela Macapugay left her family’s house in Pulilan, Bulacan, on Wednesday afternoon, her mind was already made up.
First, she would confront her husband who left her in January for another woman. Then she would kill him with the gun she had hidden in her bag and later on, she would turn the gun on herself.
A police report said that at around 7:30 p.m., Macapugay arrived at SM North Edsa in Quezon City and confronted her 32-year-old husband, Abel, who worked as a promo merchandiser in an appliance store, about his failure to support their five-year-old daughter.
Shot in the back
According to witnesses, as soon as Abel turned his back on his wife, apparently to end the conversation and avoid making a scene in public, she took out a gun from her bag and then shot him.
She then pointed the gun to her temple and pulled the trigger twice but nothing happened.
At this point, a security guard who was later identified as Ricardo Inamac III, rushed toward her and tried to take the gun away.
However, he lost his balance and she shot him, hitting him in the back and leg.
Another security guard grabbed Macapugay, took the gun from her and turned her over to the police as bystanders rushed Abel and Inamac to a hospital.
Both, however, passed away after several hours.
Premeditated
Chief Inspector Rodelio Marcelo, chief of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU), said that based on several letters she wrote and left at their house, the 25-year-old Macapugay was bent on killing her husband and then herself.
In one of the letters, she asked her mother for forgiveness and begged her to take care of her daughter.
“It’s a crime of passion … She is now going to face charges of parricide and murder,” Marcelo added.
Macapugay, meanwhile, denied that she meant to kill her husband.
“Everything was a blur. I don’t know what happened. All I know is that after we talked, I saw my husband carrying a gun and I tried to get it from him. It misfired and hit him,” she told reporters in Filipino.
According to her, she visited her husband because he had promised to give her money for their daughter that day.
“I have accepted the fact that he has a mistress but what I can’t take is how easy it was for him to turn his back on his responsibilities to our child,” she added.
Self-defense
She insisted that she merely acted in self-defense and that the gun did not belong to her.
Abel’s sister, Ollie Macapugay, said that Macapugay had been pestering her brother and even other members of their family for financial support.
Ollie told reporters that she wants to seek custody of the couple’s five-year-old daughter to protect her from “bad parenting.”
QCPD homicide chief Insp. Elmer Monsalve said that they have placed Macapugay under close watch due to her suicidal tendencies.
SM airs side
Meanwhile, the management of SM said that it deeply regrets the shooting incident that took place on Wednesday night.
In a statement, SM referred to the shooting as “an isolated and unfortunate [incident]” as it assured the public that it would be adopting stricter security measures to avoid the recurrence of similar cases.
“We will be conducting a thorough investigation on how the suspect was able to conceal the weapon and then implement appropriate measures,” it added.