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Alderman jailed for killing autistic boy

A village alderman told investigators that he was at a loss as to what drove him to shoot a 12-year-old boy in Bulacan province on Saturday. He was jailed.

  • By Gilbert Felongco, Correspondent
  • Published: 00:00 September 27, 2006
  • Gulf News

Manila: A village alderman told investigators that he was at a loss as to what drove him to shoot a 12-year-old boy in Bulacan province on Saturday. He was jailed.

"I blacked out. I do not know what drove me to shoot him," Francisco Gerona, a councilman of Gaya-Gaya village in San Jose del Monte town, said in Filipino when he was asked in an interview aired by television station ABS-CBN why he shot Patrick Banda.

Banda, who is believed to be suffering from autism, was shot by Gerona, 55, in front of horrified onlookers after the boy climbed a high tension power transmission tower around 12 noon. The shooting was recorded on video and was aired over ABS-CBN's evening news programme Bandila.

'High wire' act

Reports said the boy's "high wire" act had attracted a sizeable crowd when Gerona got his .22 calibre rifle and shot Patrick three times. A shot hit the boy as he dangled precariously on the power cable for five minutes before he hit the ground, Patrick's father said tearfully in a television interview aired by the same station.

The father, who was at work during the time of the incident, remembered his son as kind and playful despite his learning disability.

"He just went out to play and we did not know he would be climbing the tower," he said. Autism is a frequently understood developmental disorder characterised by varying degrees of learning and perception disabilities.

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