Another JMCIM member, Domingo Magpantay, had a criminal son-in-law who abused drugs and committed petty crimes such as purse snatching to feed his nagging drug habit. He also regularly beat his wife. The Christian father-in-law prayed for him and pled with him to change his ways. After multiple beatings, Brother Domingo feared for his daughter’s life. After his pleas were ignored, he decided to send his vulnerable daughter away to live with other relatives before her husband killed her.
The wayward son-in-law was furious with his meddling father-in-law. He was angry enough to kill him. On May 24, 2005, he sneaked to Brother Domingo’s modest home in the still of night when his father-in-law was sleeping soundly. He pointed a .38 caliber handgun through a hole by the wall and shot his victim from a close distance of less than two meters.
The next-door neighbor heard the gunshot and knocked at Brother Domingo’s door to see if he was okay. At first, the concerned neighbor feared that Brother Domingo had been the domestic violence victim of a grudge shooting. When Brother Domingo got out of bed to open the door he felt an excruciating pain in his chest. He groaned with pain and fell to his knees. He realized that he had been shot. He was in great pain and he grasped his chest with both hands, but miraculously he could not feel a gaping hole or any blood.
He turned on the light and he saw the bullet from a .38 caliber firearm lying on his bedroom floor. He examined his body and noticed something like an impact of a strong fist’s blow or a bump just below his heart. The recovered bullet was distorted and twisted in a shape that lead ammunition makes after it strikes a hardened surface.
Brother Domingo was rushed to the East Avenue Hospital for treatment and to the complete surprise of the attending physicians and investigating policemen, no wound was found on his body. The only injury was a big reddish-violet mark just above the stomach on the left side.
Excerpt from the Book, Miracles in Moroland: A Journey of Faith, Love and Courage (The Inside Story of the Sipadan Hostage Crisis) by Sam Smith, published in 2015
