Mom of stray bullet victim cries for justice

GERONA, Tarlac — The mother of a woman killed by a stray bullet during an alleged police operation here Friday is crying for justice.

Pilipina Gragasin, the mother of the victim, told this writer in an interview Saturday that her daughter Jella Gragasin Caldito, 24, and a resident of Barangay, Dueg, San Clemente, Tarlac was killed instantly during the police operation near their house in Barangay Sembrano.

“My daughter (Jella) was running inside our house after hearing a burst of gunfire when she suddenly fell on the ground. She was hit in the head by a bullet while the police were conducting an operation,” she said, adding that she does not know what to do as no one among the authorities as of this writing are talking with them.

“Wala man lang pong lumalapit samin para tulungan kami (No one was talking to us),” Gragasin told this writer.

A police officer who requested not to be identified said police operatives from the Tarlac Police Provincial Office were undertaking an alleged “entrapment” of a suspected gunrunner in the vicinity when the shooting happened.

Newsmen learned that Caldito was vacationing at her grandparents’ house at Barangay Sembrano here when she was hit by  a stray bullet in her head.

According to witnesses, before the shooting, Caldito was lying on a hammock with her baby.

Upon hearing gunshots, she ran inside the house but a bullet fatally hit her head. The baby, though, was not hurt.

She was declared dead on arrival at the Tarlac Provincial Hospital in Tarlac City.