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| Photo Credit: AP. |
BANGKOK (AP) — A former policeman facing a drug charge burst into a day care center in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, killing dozens of preschoolers and teachers before shooting more people as he fled in the deadliest rampage in the nation’s history.
The
assailant, who was fired from the force earlier this year, took his own life
after killing his wife and child at home.
A witness
said staff at the day care locked the door when they saw the assailant
approaching with a gun, but he shot his way in. At least 37 people were killed
in the attack in one of the poorest parts of Thailand, according to police
spokesman Archayon Kraithong.
“The teacher
who died, she had a child in her arms,” the witness, whose name wasn’t given,
told Thailand’s Kom Chad Luek television. “I didn’t think he would kill
children, but he shot at the door and shot right through it.”
A video
taken by a first responder arriving at the scene of the single-story day care
in the rural town of Nongbua Lamphu showed rescuers rushing in to the building
past the shattered glass front door, with drops of blood visible on the ground.
In footage
posted online after the attack, frantic family members could be heard weeping
outside the building, and one image showed the floor of a room smeared with
blood where sleeping mats were scattered. Pictures of the alphabet and other
colorful decorations adorned the walls.
Police
identified the suspect as 34-year-old former police officer Panya Kamrap.
Police Maj. Gen. Paisal Luesomboon told PPTV in an interview that he was fired from
the force earlier this year because of the drug charge.
In a
Facebook posting, Thai police chief Gen. Dumrongsak Kittiprapas said the man,
who had been a sergeant, was due in court on Friday for a hearing in the case
involving methamphetamine possession, and speculated that he may have chosen
the day care because it was close to his home.
Earlier,
Dumrongsak told reporters that the main weapon used was a 9mm pistol that the
man had purchased himself. Paisal said he also had a shotgun and a knife.
Thailand’s
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who plans to travel to the scene on Friday,
told reporters that initial reports were that the former officer was having
personal problems.
“This
shouldn’t happen,” he said. “I feel deep sadness toward the victims and their
relatives.”
Police have
not given a full breakdown of the death toll, but they have said at least 22
children and two adults were killed at the day care. At least two more children
were killed elsewhere. They said 12 people were wounded.
Firearm-related
deaths in Thailand are much lower than in countries like the United States and
Brazil, but higher than in countries like Japan and Singapore that have strict
gun control laws. The rate of firearms related deaths in 2019 was about 4 per
100,000, compared with about 11 per 100,000 in the U.S. and nearly 23 per
100,000 in Brazil.
Mass
shootings are rare but not unheard of in Thailand, which has one of the highest
civilian gun ownership rates in Asia, with 15.1 weapons per 100 population
compared to only 0.3 in Singapore and 0.25 in Japan. That’s still far lower
than the U.S. rate of 120.5 per 100 people, according to a 2017 survey by
Australia’s GunPolicy.org nonprofit organization.
The
country’s previous worst mass shooting involved a disgruntled soldier who
opened fire in and around a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima
in 2020, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours
before eventually being killed by them.
Last month,
a clerk shot co-workers at Thailand’s Army War College in Bangkok, killing two
and wounding another before he was arrested.
This story
has been updated to correct the spelling of a Thai TV station. It is Kom Chad
Luek, not Kom Chad Leuk. It has also been updated to correct the spelling of
the police chief’s name to Dumrongsak Kittiprapas, not Damrongsak Kittiprapha.
Associated
Press writers David Rising, Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul, Elaine Kurtenbach and
Grant Peck contributed to this story.