Banga High School Shooting: Grade 9 suspect warned classmates, 'Go home'

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The suspect in the Banga National High School shooting incident, which killed three students in the South Cotabato town, was a Grade 9 student and the son of an employee of the Department of Education in Region 12.

Banga Mayor Albert Palencia said the shooter reportedly told his friends after lunch that they should go home. He warned them that he might do something bad.

“May isang estudyante na nagsabi sa kaibigan niya na after lunch, ‘dapat mag-uwi na kayo, kasi meron akong gagawin after lunch. Baka madamay pa kayo’. Yung mga classmate niya, nagtawa, akala niya, linoloko lang sila ng shooter,” Palencia told Super Radyo dzBB.

(There was a student that told his friends that after lunch, ‘go home, because I will do something after lunch.’ The classmates laughed, thinking that the shooter was joking.)

It was said that the student left his classroom and opened fire in the adjacent classroom.

Palencia said the shooter brought two magazines for a 9 mm gun. After he opened fire on other students, the shooter reportedly turned the gun on himself after changing magazines.

The student reportedly got the gun from his own father.

“Yung papa niya, shooter din. At saka empleyado ng DepEd Region XII. Kaya 'yung baril, tinatago sa vault, sinira ng bata 'yung vault at saka dinala 'yung baril sa eskwelahan,” Palencia said.

(His father was a shooter, also. And an employee of DepEd Region XII. So the gun was hidden in the vault, the kid broke the vault, and then he brought the gun to school.)

The mayor said he learned that the mother of the shooter was planning to take her child to seek psychiatric help.

The shooter’s sibling was also a teacher in the high school.

His father was in General Santos, teaching about child safety. –NB, GMA News