When will it stop? Grade 5 teen shot dead in Taguig

A 14-year-old student who, according to local officials, was allegedly involved in petty robberies, was shot twice in the back of his head by one of two gunmen in Taguig City on Friday night.

Taguig City Police chief Senior Supt. Alexander Santos identified the victim as Mike Lorenz Salonga, a Grade 5 student.

A report reaching Santos said Salonga was with another minor and was allegedly looking for another victim when he was shot around 10 p.m.

A security camera footage showed Salonga walking inside PNAI Subdivision in Barangay Calzada Tipas. He was later found slumped and bloodied on the pavement.

Jesus Peria, an investigator from the barangay government, said the minor Santos met before the shooting appeared at the barangay hall on Saturday afternoon to say that one of the assailants also pointed a gun at him.

Salonga, a resident of the neighboring Barangay Palingon, had been involved in various robberies in the area, Peria said. The teenager had also been caught violating the curfew, he added.

The victim’s mother Mira, a laundry woman, told Radyo Inquirer that her son started using illegal drugs and marijuana when he was 9 years old and had been under drug rehabilitation for months.

But the teenager went back to his old vice, she said.

An investigation is still ongoing.