GUIHULNGAN CITY, NEGROS ORIENTAL - A nursery student and her father were killed by police last Tuesday in this city.

Four-year-old Althea Fhem Barbon and his father Adric Barbon, 31, died after members of the Guihulngan City police shot them along Larena Street in Barangay Poblacion Tuesday night.

Althea was riding a motorcycle driven by his father when cops stopped them on their way home.

Police claimed that Mr. Barbon, a suspected drug dealer, attempted to shoot them.

Police officers fired their guns and shot dead the man and his daughter.

"We regret to know that a life was crossed and it's sad that just like in any other operation, she was made a collateral damage," said Superintendent D'Artagnan Katalbas, chief of the Guihulngan City police.

Katalbas claimed that it was dark when the incident happened, and police failed to notice the child riding along with her father.

They recovered a caliber .38 revolver and five sachets of suspected shabu allegedly from the suspect.

For Marilyn Barbon, losing both his son and granddaughter is too much to bear.

"They should have prioritized the safety of child first before deciding to do what they were tasked to do. They were innocent," she said, crying.

Investigators from the Commission on Human Rights in Negros Oriental have started their initial investigation on the incident.