According to AP, grieving family members left flowers today at the scene of a police officer’s massacre of dozens of people, including children as young as 2 who were napping, at a daycare center in rural northeastern Thailand.
Following Thursday’s gruesome attack in a little town hidden among rice paddies in one of the poorest parts of the country, the entire nation was in shock. The attack, the bloodiest mass shooting in Thailand, claimed the lives of 36 persons, at least 24 of them were children.
On Friday morning, wreaths were placed at ceremonial tables in front of the center’s main door by royal and governmental representatives wearing white military uniforms. A fading Thai flag was flying at half staff overhead. They were followed by sobbing family members who laid white flowers on the wooden floor before joining hands in prayer. As ambulances transported the remains back to the daycare facility so that waiting families could pick them up, town residents lined the streets to watch.
Later in the day, King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida of Thailand were expected to visit the hospitals where seven of the ten injured persons are still being treated. It was also expected that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha would visit the hospitals and daycare center. In a park in the heart of Bangkok, a vigil was organized.
“I cried until I had no more tears coming out of my eyes. They are running through my heart,” revealed to AP, Seksan Sriraj, 28, whose pregnant wife died in the attack at the Young Children’s Development Center in Uthai Sawan and was supposed to give birth this month. He added, “My wife and my child have gone to a peaceful place. I am alive and will have to live. If I can’t go on, my wife and my child will be worried about me, and they won’t be reborn in the next life.”
The attacker was identified by authorities as Panya Kamrap, 34, a former police sergeant who was dismissed earlier this year due to a methamphetamine-related criminal offense. He was due to be appearing in court on Friday. According to an employee, Panya’s son had attended the daycare but hadn’t been there in nearly a month. After killing his wife and child at home, Panya committed suicide.
Before moving toward the center, according to witnesses, the assailant shot a man and a child in front of it. The shooter kicked and shot his way through the glass front door that the teachers had secured. The majority of the kids, who were 2 and 3 years old, had been napping in the afternoon, and images obtained by emergency personnel showed their small bodies still laying on blankets. Images of the victims’ faces being slashed and gunshot wounds to their heads were visible.
Satita Boonsom, who worked at the daycare center, told AP that she and three other instructors scaled the fence of the nursery to flee, phone the police, and get help. The kids were already dead when she came back. She claimed that one child who was shielded from the attack by a blanket did so because the attacker believed he was already dead. She claimed that while the facility typically houses 70 to 80 kids, there were fewer at the time of the incident as older kids’ semesters had already ended and a school bus couldn’t operate due to the rain.
There was a worldwide outpouring of sympathy and support. “All Australians send their love and condolences,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweeted. “This violence is both senseless and heartbreaking,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “I’m profoundly saddened by the heinous shooting at a childcare center in Thailand,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted.