Posts tagged suddenly

Retired Army General and Mrs. Doe were operating their own security agency in Metro Manila for over a year with its manpower of 700 field personnel who served about 50 security clients. It ran so well that the old spouses were able to live an extravagant life until they met a doom they had never expected.

One morning of  Tuesday at their agency office, the HRD Manager was interviewing an applicant  SG John Doe, about 30 years old, 5’7 in height, well-built and clean-cut. The interview includes submission of necessary papers, such as NBI and PNP clearances, Neuropsychiatric and Drug Tests, Training and License Certificates and other pre-employment requirements. Having been found qualified for the job, with his documents verified complete and in order; he was eventually hired as Security guard and was temporarily deployed in an on-going construction site.

SG Doe was given a 12-hour tour of duty which started at 6:00pm, and as far as his duty was concerned, his guarding night ordinarily passed without any problem. He was supposed to be relieved at 6:00am the following morning but unfortunately, the next guard who was supposed to relieve him was not able to report for duty for an unknown reason. As it was an emergency absence, the Security In-charge could not be able to look for a replacement and further asked SG Doe to extend his tour of duty for another 8-hour -which he did not contest.

His duty extension went on smoothly as if  he were enjoying his new job, not until pass 1:00pm when he got a text message from unknown sender, informing him that his wife was caught by their son having sex with another man. He immediately asked his In-charge for an emergency replacement so he could check on it but the former failed to provide his reliever. And so he was forced to stay on with a heavy heart.

SG Doe was seemingly agitated by the information he received through text message and at around 3:00pm, he suddenly grabbed his 12. gauge shot gun and ran towards the next post and – without provocation, shot dead his co-guard who was on-duty at the administrative entrance.   Thereafter, he rushed towards the Reception area and fired to death at the lone visitor who was seated near the reception table. As if he were not contented, he again ran towards the construction area where workers scampered for cover, but one of them was hit by another bullet and laid dead. Ironically, when the police arrived SG Doe did not resist the arrest and voluntarily turned over his firearm and went calmly with the arresting officers.

For the next few days, the incident had formed part of the newspapers headlines – in the Radio/TV news and other tabloids. “I was not in my normal mind when I did it. I was probably in total delusion at that time because I’ve been on duty for three consecutive days without eating”, so he claimed. The news and media interviews immediately caught the attention of all existing security clients and at no time, these clients gradually terminated their contracts with the agency and looked for new security service providers. The security agency was forced to engage into amicable settlement with the aggrieved parties. It paid almost a million for the lives of the three innocent victims. It became the subject of investigation of the local authorities, and the worse, the pull-out of security guards from their original deployment due to the clients’ termination of contract suddenly sent the agency into total bankruptcy.

What is the moral lesson in this story?