Autopsy to be done on girl hit by stray bullet on New Year – DOH

In this file photo, Marilyn Villanueva attends to her daughter Emilyn inside the intensive care unit of the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center after a bullet hit her in the head on New Year’s Eve. Emilyn died on Jan. 4, 2017, Wednesday.  (Photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA — Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial has announced that the remains of the 15-year-old girl believed to be a victim of stray bullet due to indiscriminate firing will undergo autopsy.

Ubial revealed this on Wednesday night, as she confirmed the death of Emilyn Villanueva.

Ubial said Villanueva suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.

The health secretary said Villanueva’s remains would undergo autopsy, adding that doctors tried to resuscitate the girl but were not successful.

Prior to her death, the condition of Villanueva, who went into a deep coma, deteriorated and had shown no signs of recovery, the health official said in a previous interview.

On Monday, Ubial maintained that Villanueva suffered injuries from a stray bullet and not from deliberate shooting as claimed by the police.

“If it’s a shooting incident, the trajectory of the bullet that hit the victim would not be like that. We still categorize it as stray bullet from indiscriminate firing because the bullet hit the child on the head at the trajectory of a stray bullet, vertical,” Ubial told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“In terms of the health indicator, the CT scan that we have, the trajectory of the bullet was really from up going downward,” she stressed, contradicting a police report that classified the shooting as intentional.

The Malabon City Police filed on Tuesday frustrated murder and reckless imprudence resulting in serious physical injuries against a certain Renato Sy Jr., alias Toti, for allegedly firing a shot at Barangay San Agustin watchman Patricio Muñoz, who had allegedly reported on the illegal activities of Sy.

According to the police, the bullet meant for Muñoz hit Villanueva, instead.  At the time the Malabon City Police filed the complaint against Sy, Villanueva was still alive, which explained why one charge was reckless imprudence resulting in serious physical injuries.  The other charge was frustrated murder for the alleged failed attempt by Sy to kill Muñoz.  SFM