Gun fired inside hospital in seaman’s suicide try

MANILA, Philippines—A seaman who reportedly hadn’t slept for three days grabbed a pistol from a security guard and tried to shoot himself inside the emergency room of a public hospital in Manila on Thursday.

No one was hurt when a shot went off in the ensuing commotion inside Ospital ng Maynila, where 24-year-old Rene Beboso went berserk.

The man was earlier brought to the hospital in Malate by family members who caught him slashing his neck in his first suicide attempt at their home in Cavite province.

Beboso, a resident of Camella Homes, San Nicolas in Bacoor, faces charges for assault and for alarm and scandal following the 8 a.m. incident, the Manila Police District (MPD) said.

According to Supt. Romeo Odrada, chief of the MPD Malate station, Beboso suddenly snatched the gun—a .357 Magnum—of one of the hospital guards, identified as Jason Padua.

Beboso pointed the pistol at his face, but Padua managed to push him before he could pull the trigger. “The guard then tried to wrest the gun off his hands—until it went off. The bullet hit only the pavement and Padua got the gun back,” Odrada said.

Beboso was later transferred to the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Hospital.

“His relatives said he arrived from abroad earlier this month. Since then, he was always drinking and appeared depressed, sometimes even hallucinating. Before this happened, he had not slept for three days,” Odrada said. “We will file the appropriate charges. It is up to Beboso and his family to claim mental illness as his defense for what he did.’’