Boy, 7, shoots 4-year-old brother

A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy shot and killed his four-year-old brother while playing inside their house in Barangay Bantigue in Bantayan Island, Cebu last Sunday morning.
Mark, 7, accidentally shot Carl, 4, with a .45 pistol. The bullet hit Carl in the philtrum, the midline groove between the upper lip and the nose.
Sun.Star Cebu is withholding the real names of the children.
Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, head of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO), said the boys' parents may face criminal liability for violating the Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.
The kids’ parents denied owning a gun.
Discourage
“A toy gun is never a toy. It should always be discouraged and so are violent games,” Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7 information officer Jaybee Binghay told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday. She added that toy guns are associated with violence.
PO3 Lou Susvilla of the Bantayan Police Station said the boys often played with a violent video game called, Counter Strike, where soldiers engaged in gunfight with terrorists.
The DSWD 7 will decide on what type of intervention or therapy will be given to the older kid based on the report of the municipal social welfare officers handling the case.
Binghay said the incident stresses the need to strengthen family values.
Susvilla said before the incident, which occurred at 11:30 a.m., the boys and their mother went to attend a birthday party in Barangay Tikad.
Game
When they got back home, the boys asked their mother’s permission to play a Counter Strike game in the bedroom.
The mother was about to leave to look for her husband when she heard a gunshot. When she went inside to check on the children, she saw Carl, mouth bleeding, being carried by his older brother.
The younger boy died before arriving at the Bantayan District Hospital.
Susvilla said the kids’ father, a former overseas worker, denied owning the gun.
The police found the pistol on the bed.
In a separate interview, Bantayan Police Station Chief Ildefonso Miranda said Mark told them he found the gun in a cabinet and it was allegedly owned by his deceased grandfather. The parents denied this. Mark and his parents have been talking with municipal social workers since the incident was reported.