By DPA,
Manila : A 6-year-old boy accidentally shot dead his father and injured his mother in a Father’s Day tragedy in the Philippines, police said Monday.
Police officer Hermogenes Capili said the victim, Apolonio Pacioles, 45, was a soldier who had just come home after fighting Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines.
Capili said Pacioles had asked his son to get his 45-calibre pistol from the upstairs bedroom of their house in the suburban city of Quezon on Sunday.
The boy, the youngest of the victim’s three children, got the gun and even removed the magazine as he was taught by his father.
The boy then asked if the gun was loaded, but his father ignored him.
Thinking he had removed all the bullets, the boy cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger.
“But apparently one bullet was left in the chamber,” Capili said, adding that the bullet struck the boy’s father in the abdomen.
The bullet exited Pacioles’ body, hit a door and then grazed the boy’s mother. The mother was released from hospital after treatment.
Capili said no criminal charges would be filed against the boy since he is still a minor.