Killers prey on QC man ‘with mind of 10-yr-old’

Two men on motorcycles shot dead on Wednesday a 23-year-old man whom his family had described as having the mental capacity of a 10-year-old child.

Jun-jun Gadia, who was diagnosed eight years ago to be suffering from mental retardation and schizoprenia, was helping out at a tricycle terminal in Quezon City when he was gunned down.

His parents, Lemuel and Sheila Gadia, were hardpressed to come up with a motive for his killing. Their son could be difficult at times but he was certainly not a criminal, they said.

Jun-jun was neither involved in illegal drugs nor on the drug watch list of Barangay Commonwealth. “He even told us: I don’t like [drugs], I’m scared of drugs,” Lemuel told the Inquirer.

But Sheila expressed fears that her son may have been involved in criminal activities since his mental disability made him very gullible.

“People may have used him as an asset or lookout because it was easy to bribe him with just P20 or some candy,” she said.

Gadia’s case is now one of nearly 460 deaths being investigated by the Quezon City police since July last year after the government started waging an all-out war on drugs. Most of the victims are drug suspects.

According to police records, two motorcycle riders shot Jun-jun at 3:30 a.m. as he was helping push tricycles at a terminal on Pilot Drive, Commonwealth.

In an interview in their house hours after their son’s death, Lemuel said Gadia was in elementary when his teachers noticed that something was different about him.

“He was very temperamental and had mood swings,” he added.

In 2009, doctors at East Avenue Medical Center told Lemuel and Sheila that their son had signs of mental retardation and schizophrenia. Since then, Sheila said, they had been bringing Gadia to the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) in Mandaluyong City, where he was once confined for a week.

“But he was sent home because the doctors told us his condition would worsen in confinement,” Lemuel added. Jun-jun’s last visit to NCMH was over a year ago.

The couple, who have four other sons, added that Jun-jun often preferred being outdoors instead of staying inside their cramped home. Many neighbors thus grew fond of him because he ran errands for them.

He even volunteered for several months as a helper at the barangay hall, doing minor tasks like stacking up chairs.

Sheila said that about an hour before her son’s death, witnesses saw him arguing with another man in an eatery.

The man allegedly threatened to shoot Jun-jun, the witnesses said. Over an hour later, the victim was gunned down at the tricycle terminal.

“He thought and acted like a 10-year-old, but we all cared for him,” Sheila said.