Source : the age
Warning: This story contains graphic content.
Bangkok: The Thai teenager who shot his grandparents dead at home and then killed at least five people at his high school had been watching online videos about mass shootings in the days leading up to his rampage, police say.
Royal Thai Police spokesperson Trairong Piwpan said police were also examining the 14-year-old’s apparent taste for violent video games, while Prime Minister Anunit Charnvirakul, who visited the scene on Friday, said the boy had previously shown off the 9mm handgun that he used in the killings on Instagram.
Piwpan said that after the boy killed his grandparents early on Friday morning, he went as usual to Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the north-west outskirts of Bangkok, and sat in class until about 10am before pulling the concealed gun from his bag and opening fire.
He then went beyond the classroom and began firing in other areas of the school grounds, discharging more than 20 rounds.
“He eventually reached the last building, where police officers had already begun securing and cordoning off the area,” Piwpan said.
“At that point, the suspect took his own life.”
Five teachers and administrators were left dead or dying and about 30 people, including students, were wounded by gunfire or while trying to escape, as many as 10 of them critically.
Anutin said the gun was legally registered to the boy’s grandfather.
“I understand that his grandfather and grandmother – his grandmother is a teacher – wanted him to do well in his studies, so they were quite strict and rigorous,” the prime minister said when asked by reporters about a possible motive.
“We learned from the police interrogation … of his close friend that he was experiencing stress in this area and complaining about it.”
Piwpan said the shooter had also been complaining to friends about assignments and homework.
Videos and photos shared on social media on Friday showed students running from classrooms, sheltering beneath desks and climbing through windows to stand on ledges.
In one photo, a person can be seen lying on a stretcher outside an ambulance, while another is attended by a medic.
An 18-year-old student at the school said he initially thought the sound of gunfire was firecrackers or someone banging an object.
“I didn’t think it was a gun at first,” he said. “There were many shots: bang, bang, bang! Then it went quiet. Then it started again.”
The Bangkok Post reported family members saying that he usually kept to himself and spent most of his free time playing video games.
“We also found evidence that he had searched for and researched several past shooting incidents, and some of those searches appear to be connected to this case,” Piwpan said.
Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, said he arrived at the scene during the shooting and his team treated students with injuries to the back, chest and arms.
They found a male teacher lying dead on an upper floor of the school, and in another room they found a female teacher with wounds in her chest and arm.
He said he was called to treat the teenage shooter after hearing a final shot.
“We rushed up and found that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed. When we got up there, we checked his pulse, he still had one, so we started CPR,” he said.
The suspect was then taken to the hospital, he said, where he later died.
The school has about 3100 students and 147 teachers, according to district authorities.
The prime minister said he would discuss gun control with the country’s police chief.
“This is terrible for something like this to happen,” Anutin told reporters. “I’m sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country.”
Gun ownership is common in Thailand, but school mass killings are not.
The tragedy on Friday has triggered memories of the 2022 massacre at a daycare facility in north-east Thailand in which a former police officer killed 36 people, including 24 children.
In 2020, a soldier stole weapons from a base and went on an hours-long rampage at a military camp and shopping mall in central Thailand, leaving almost 30 people dead.
In February, a teacher died and a student was injured in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai district after a gunman opened fire at a school.
Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.
With Reuters, Bloomberg, AP
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