Ailing man shoots self with security guard’s gun

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A well-to-do man suffering from complications of diabetes and tuberculosis borrowed a security guard’s gun and shot himself to death on Monday night in Tondo, police said.

Bernardo Sebastian, 62, who according to his live-in partner Susan Manicad had been weak and ill for several months now, was found dead on his bed with a gunshot wound on the left temple around  9 p.m., said a report of the Manila police.

Benjamin Toledo, the security guard at Sebastian’s residence at No. 1477 Antonio Rivera Street in Tondo, told homicide investigators that Sebastian borrowed his .38-caliber service firearm when the two had a brief conversation inside Sebastian’s room a few minutes before the shooting.

The security officer added that he did not want to lend his gun to the victim, whose family was in the real estate business, but relented due to Sebastian’s persistence.

Toledo told the police that a few minutes after he left the victim alone in his room, he heard a gunshot from the room.

Recovered from the scene was the gun, which was found beside Sebastian’s head, said Senior Police Officer 1 Richard Escarlan of the Manila Police District homicide division.

Manicad, in her statement to the police, said Sebastian had been suffering from the complications of diabetes and tuberculosis for a few months now which, according to investigators, could have made the victim hopeless.

Escarlan said the gun, along with a bullet casing recovered from Sebastian’s room, has been submitted for ballistic examination.

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