A CONSTRUCTION worker who went berserk died after he was shot by his own firearm in Barangay Tupas, Ronda town, southwest Cebu, at around 9:05 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, 2024.
The fatality was identified as Zaldy Bailoces, a married construction worker from Bindoy, Negros Oriental. He was 33 years old.
Those injured were his fellow workers from Manjuyod and Bindoy towns and a 72-year-old man from Ronda.
The Negrenses were working on a rip-rap project in the area.
Before the incident, the construction foreman claimed that Bailoces made a P1,000 cash advance for his travel back home, according to Police Captain Jec Seares, the chief of the Ronda Police Station.
"Naghinoktok, nag-inusara, samotan nga hilumon na daan na-depressed! Wala sila kabalo unsay problema kay di man sab mo-istorya," Seares said.
(He was thinking very hard and lonely, and since he was quiet, he became depressed. They don't know what’s his problem because he doesn’t talk).
His co-workers made him take a bus, but Bailoces to the bunkhouse and attacked his two fellow Negrenses – a 20-year-old who had a cut on the right hand and a 32-year-old who sustained a wound in his back.
He then proceeded to the house of a 72-year-old man around 100 meters away and stabbed the victim in the stomach.
He also pulled out a .38 revolver but the victim parried it and during their scuffle the gun went off and hit Bailoces in the chest, killing him instantly.
Police recovered the firearm used by Bailoces.
After the incident, the elderly man surrendered to the police.
Seares said they would expand their investigation to determine what caused the suspect to run amok. (GPL, TPT)