The Department of Justice (DoJ) has recommended criminal charges against a police officer whose government-issued firearm was allegedly used by a child in a June school shooting in Tacloban City that left three students dead and at least 20 others injured.

The Tacloban City prosecutor’s office recommended on Aug. 20 charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and physical injuries against Police Staff Sergeant Arla Ray Pacencia, the DoJ said on Tuesday. Reckless imprudence is a quasi-offense under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code, covering deaths and injuries caused by negligence rather than deliberate acts; Ms. Pacencia faces no accusation of taking part in the shooting itself.

“The corresponding Information will be filed with the Family Court, Regional Trial Court of Tacloban City,” DoJ spokesman Raphael Niccolo “Polo” L. Martinez told reporters via Viber. No filing date has been set, he said, because the Office of the City Prosecutor of Tacloban City must first determine when to submit the information to the court. Family Courts, created under Republic Act No. 8369, hear criminal cases in which children are involved as victims or accused.

The charges stem from a complaint filed by parents and students of San Jose National High School after the June 22 shooting, in which two minors, aged 14 and 15, allegedly opened fire inside at least two classrooms.

Ms. Pacencia is the aunt of the 14-year-old who allegedly used her government-issued 9mm Glock 17 pistol during the attack. Fifteen of the injured students suffered gunshot wounds, while five others were hurt in the panic and commotion that followed, according to authorities.

The other minor was allegedly armed with a .38-caliber revolver traced to a security agency in Cebu, so both weapons used in the attack were traced to institutional owners — a police-issued sidearm and a firearm linked to a private security company. Both minors were taken into custody and are subject to separate proceedings under the juvenile justice system, which is governed by the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act (Republic Act No. 9344, as amended by Republic Act No. 10630). The law sets 15 as the minimum age of criminal responsibility; children below that age at the time of the offense are exempt from criminal liability and undergo intervention programs.

The case comes amid concern over a series of violent incidents involving students.

Justice Secretary Fredderick A. Vida told a House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations hearing on Monday that authorities were seeing a pattern in school violence involving students in recent months.

Last week, a 14-year-old Grade 8 student at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Junior High School allegedly opened fire on campus, killing another student before taking his own life.

Interior Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” C. Remulla earlier said the student livestreamed the shooting on Facebook and another website.

“From the pattern that he used a live video and put it on a website, it seems the child was radicalized,” Mr. Remulla told reporters a day after the incident, adding that authorities were investigating the website where the shooting was livestreamed.

Mr. Vida also warned about online influences that could expose children to violent behavior, noting that some people seek to draw young people into online spaces where violent content and ideas are amplified.

The open threads now include when the Information will be filed with the Family Court, how the two minors’ separate juvenile proceedings unfold, and what the probe of the livestream website finds.

The DoJ said it trusts that the criminal proceedings would follow due process for all parties. — Mark Joseph M. Sanchez