Mall shock: Boy shoots friend, then himself

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A 13-year-old boy shot himself in the head seconds after he shot an older male friend inside a mall here in a case that mall owners in a statement said they deplored.

The boy, armed with a .22 cal. gun, and his 16-year-old friend were taken to separate hospitals here where they were declared in critical condition.

The incident happened between 11:45 and 11:50 a.m. as the two walked out of the Congo Grill in Building 3 of SM shopping mall. No shopper was hurt, police said.

Supt. Wilson Santos, police chief of Mexico town, said investigators found a suicide note in one of the pockets of the boy, a resident of Olongapo City.

“I’m willing to die together with (name of his friend),” the boy’s note said.

Another source, who read the note, said the boy also wrote: “I’m happy to kill you. No one else would own you.”

The boy’s friend is a native of Bulacan. He was shot in the back of the head.

In a statement, SM management said it was cooperating with police in the investigation.

It said police officials told management that while security at SM had been “constantly vigilant,” the gun was “very difficult to detect as this was so small.”

“We apologize for whatever inconvenience or anxiety we may have caused our customers and wish to let them know that the situation in the mall is back to normal,” the statement said. Police said the gun had three bullets. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon