Actor Mistaken For Gunman, Killed During Filming In Philippines

Last weekend, in the Philippines, an actor was mistaken for a masked gunman by a village watchman, who jumped onto the actor’s moving motorcycle and shot him fatally. Witnesses reportedly thought the killing was part of the movie’s action.

Actor Kirk Abella was wearing a mask and riding a motorcycle for a scene in the British film Going Somewhere last Saturday when the incident occurred. A village watchmen, Eddie Cuizon, had been alerted to the presence of armed men in the area, the Parian district of the Philippine city of Cebu, by a local resident. Though Cuizon had relayed that information to the local police station and been informed by them about the filming of the movie, he nevertheless went to the set with a policeman trailing behind.

When he arrived at the set, the policeman still a ways behind him, the director had just yelled action and Abella had started to take off on his motorcycle. Fearing that he was a criminal about to make an escape – motorcycle-riding gunmen are common in the area – Cuizon jumped on the motorcycle and shot Abella in the back, point blank. Cuizon surrendered to the police immediately after he had realised what happened, and Abella died shortly thereafter in a nearby hospital.

In the Philippines, village watchmen assist the police in patrolling streets and enforcing curfews, though typically they have batons and are not permitted to carry firearms. Cuizon said that he had borrowed the homemade .357 Magnum he used to kill Abella from someone else; he’s being charged today with homicide and violation of a gun ban. [Yahoo!]