CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna, Philippines—A former US Army soldier, believed to be suffering from depression, went berserk after a failed suicide attempt early Friday and attacked a neighbor and a policeman before he himself was shot and subdued.
Superintendent Kirby Kraft, San Pedro police chief, identified him as Mervin Capane, 29, a Filipino-American and a resident of Hawaii.
Quoting Capane’s relatives, Kraft said the former US soldier had been acting strangely since coming to San Pedro from Hawaii last July 11 and learning that his grandmother had died a few days earlier.
On Friday, around 4 a.m. Capane attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself up a 15-foot electric post in Barangay Magsaysay, using a telephone line as a noose, Kraft said. But the wire snapped due to his weight and he fell to the ground, hitting first the roof of a neighbor’s house.
The neighbor, Jonjon Espino, went out to check what happened but Capane, who had a knife with him, ran after and threatened to kill Espino.
This prompted Espino to seek help from village watchmen, who in turn sought police assistance when they failed to calm Capane down.
One of the responding policemen, PO1 Jeffrey Sarinas, ordered Capane to drop his knife but Capane instead attacked the cop and wounded Sarinas on one foot. Acting in defense, Sarinas shot Capane, hitting him in the stomach and shoulder, Kraft said.
He said Capane was taken to the University of Perpetual Help Hospital in Biñan City to undergo an operation.
According to Capane’s relatives, his grandmother lived with his family in Hawaii for 11 years and practically took care of him when he was a boy, Kraft said.
Kraft said they had no information when the grandmother came home. She died last July 7, he said.
“They were not so sure what happened since he joined the (US) Army, but he was too young to leave the service, so something must have happened there,” Kraft said.