17-year-old laborer killed while playing guitar

A teenager seated in front of a store while singing and playing his guitar was killed by an unidentified man in Mandaluyong City Tuesday evening.

Policemen and barangay officials who went to the crime scene found John Paul Diamsay, a 17-year-old construction worker, on his knees and his head touching the ground. He was still hugging his guitar.

Diamsay was killed at Block 34, Welfareville Compound, in Barangay Addition Hills, according to a report to Senior Supt. Joaquin Alva, Mandaluyong police chief.

A witness said the killer who wore a ball cap, a white shirt, shorts and slippers shot Diamsay in the head.

According to reports, the victim was reportedly a drug runner. However, Diamsay was not in the watch list of the barangay or of the police’s antiillegal drugs unit, according to investigator PO3 Donald Bañes.

The victim’s mother, a laundry woman who came to the police station, told investigators that Diamsay was a very good and hardworking son. He was the eldest of four and had no vices, she said. The victim’s father is a jeepney driver.

The family refused to have his body autopsied and said they would not be going after his killers, Bañes said.

Bañes told the Inquirer that Diamsay’s murder could be a case of mistaken identity since he had the same nickname as Burnok, a wanted drug suspect in Barangay Addition Hills who remains at large. Two of Burnok’s cohorts had already been killed, he added.

Diamsay is the 26th victim of extrajudicial killings in Mandaluyong City and the 17th victim in Barangay Addition Hills, one of the most drug-infested areas in the city. No suspect has been identified or arrested yet, Alva said.

Last Monday, a Barangay Addition Hills volunteer included in the police’s drug watch list was shot dead also by unidentified masked men.

At present, there are 20 policemen assigned to secure residents in the area because of the killings.

Alva said they were looking into all possible motives, including failure to remit drug earnings, conflict between rival groups or an attempt to silence drug suspects, among others.