A 16-year-old schoolboy who gunned down classmates at a Philippine high school before killing himself was a member of an online community that glorifies mass shooters and serial killers, officials have revealed.
The Grade 9 student walked into Banga National High School in South Cotabato on Friday afternoon and opened fire, killing six students and wounding several others before turning the gun on himself. (Editor’s Note: DSWD updated the casualty count to 6, while local officials said three were killed.)
The revelation has raised fresh concerns about the influence of violent online communities on vulnerable teenagers — and about how easily a minor was able to obtain a handgun.
South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo and Banga Mayor Albert Palencia said investigators discovered the teenager had been active in the so-called True Crime Community, an online subculture focused on real-life murders, school shootings and notorious killers.
Police examining his online activity found posts suggesting he had “idolized” previous school shooters, officials said.
Mayor Palencia said investigators believed the teenager may have been attempting to copy earlier school attacks.
“Our police found out that the kid is a member of a true crime community… the ones who shoot up schools. It is like he copied what happened in the other schools,” Palencia said.
The governor said investigators were examining the teenager’s online activity after speaking with one of his close friends.
‘I will be executing my plan’
In the minutes before the shooting, the teenager reportedly sat with friends and told them to go home after lunch because he would be “executing my plan.”
His friends reportedly laughed because they believed he was joking. The boy was known among classmates as a class joker.
Shortly afterward, however, he left the classroom and opened fire on students in a nearby room and in a hallway before taking his own life.
The weapon used in the attack was reportedly a handgun belonging to his father, a Department of Education employee who was involved in shooting activities.
Investigators said the teenager obtained the gun after forcing open his father’s locked firearm vault.
The circumstances have prompted renewed calls for stricter firearm storage, particularly in homes where children have access to secured weapons.
Online influence under scrutiny
The True Crime Community encompasses a broad range of online users interested in real criminal cases, but authorities have raised concerns about darker networks in which violent offenders and mass killers are celebrated.
Philippine police and lawmakers have previously linked some online networks, including groups associated with the name 764, to the exploitation and grooming of minors and alleged encouragement of self-harm and violence.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros linked the group 764 to the two suspects in the Tacloban shooting, both minor students aged 14 and 15.
Those broader allegations do not by themselves establish that the Banga student was involved in such activities. Investigators are still determining the extent and nature of his online contacts.
The Banga shooting also comes months after a deadly school attack in Tacloban in June that killed three students. It also comes exactly a month after the Ateneo de Zamboanga University school shooting on August 18.
Authorities have investigated possible links between that case and violent online communities.
The teenager’s precise motive in the Banga attack remains under investigation.
Local reports have also cited possible personal difficulties, including low self-esteem and academic struggles, but authorities have not established a single cause for the shooting. Investigators are examining both the teenager’s digital activity and the circumstances that allowed him to obtain his father’s firearm.
The attack has left the Banga school community grieving and renewed concerns over two increasingly difficult challenges facing Filipino families: violent online content and the secure storage of firearms in homes with children.
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