Thailand in mourning after dozens killed in day care massacre
Thailand was in mourning Friday, one day after an ex-cop massacred 36 people, including 24 children, in the country’s deadliest mass killing.
“I cried until I had no more tears coming out of my eyes,” said 28-year-old Seksan Sriraj, whose pregnant wife was a teacher at the day care center that was attacked.
Panya Kamrap, a 34-year-old ex-cop, terrorized the Young Children’s Development Center in Uthai Sawan one day before he was scheduled to face trial on a drug charge, police said.
Panya used a gun and a knife in the attack; he later killed his wife and son before dying by suicide, cops said.
Relatives of victims cry as coffins are opened at Wat Si Uthai temple on Oct. 7, 2022 in Uthai Sawan subdistrict, Nong Bua Lamphu, Thailand. (Sirachai Arunrugstichai/)
His son was one of at least 24 children who died. Authorities said some kids were killed with gunshots and others were slashed with a knife. One woman collapsed after seeing her 3-year-old niece was dead.
“When I looked, I saw she had been slashed in the face with a knife,” said Som-Mai Pitfai, 58, after she was revived by paramedics.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha visited the site of the violence, about 260 miles north of Bangkok. He was one of many people who left flowers at an impromptu memorial.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha gestures with a traditional "wai" after visiting the families of the victims in the day care center attack in Uthai Sawan, north eastern Thailand, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. (Wason Wanichakorn/)
King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida visited two hospitals in the small town, where several of the 10 wounded victims were being treated Friday.
“It was just too much,” said 51-year-old Oy Yodkhao after visiting the scene and seeing his 4-year-old grandson had been killed. “I can’t accept this.”
A prayer offering is displayed outside the nursery, where a mass shooting by a former police officer took place, in Na Klang in Thailand's northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province on October 7, 2022. - Weeping, grief-stricken families gathered on October 7 outside a Thai nursery where an ex-policeman murdered two dozen children in one of the kingdom's worst mass killings. (Photo by Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP) (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP via Getty Images) (MANAN VATSYAYANA/)
Investigators began piecing together the details of the attack on Friday. Panya’s mother said he was facing mounting debt, worried about the drug charge and often fighting with his wife.
“As of now, the police assume that he became stressed because he was afraid that his wife would leave him,” national police chief Dumrongsak Kittiprapas said.
Authorities said that Panya’s son also attended the Young Children’s Development Center, though the son had been absent for weeks.
Portraits of victims sit atop coffins at Wat Si Uthai temple on Oct. 7, 2022 in Uthai Sawan subdistrict, Nong Bua Lamphu, Thailand. (BEE KANJANASANTANA/)
Staffers tried to lock the building’s glass front door after a father and child were shot in front of the building. But Panya shot and kicked his way through, determined to carry out horrific violence, cops said.
Panya attacked the day care center during nap time, and many of the children were killed while they slept, police said.
On a normal day, the center cared for 70 to 80 kids, staffers said. But the semester had already ended for older children, and others weren’t there on Thursday because a school bus was cut off by monsoon rains.
“They wouldn’t have survived,” employee Satita Boonsom said on Thai TV.
Thailand has one of the highest gun ownership rates in Asia, though shootings there are much less common than in the U.S. Before Thursday, the deadliest mass killing in Thai history happened in 2020, when disgruntled soldier Jakrapanth Thomma fatally shot 29 people and wounded dozens more.
With News Wire Services
