Minor Shoots and Kills Grandparents and Six Others, Including Students, at His School in Thailand
A teenage boy described by classmates as “mentally unstable” killed his grandparents with a gun before shooting dead at least six other people, including three students and three teachers, at a school near the Thai capital Bangkok on Friday, police said.
In a statement, the Royal Thai Police said the teenager began by killing his grandparents using his grandfather’s pistol, then moved to a high school north of Bangkok where he killed three teachers and three students.
Authorities said the shooter, a teenage student at the same school, was also killed, but did not clarify whether he was shot by police or took his own life.
Large numbers of police officers and emergency responders gathered outside Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi Province on Friday, as parents rushed to pick up their children. Students and staff, overcome with grief and tears, offered each other condolences outside the school.
“I was afraid I would die, and I was scared I wouldn’t be able to achieve my dreams,” said Bavarisai Mailisa, a 12th-grade student who hopes to study medicine.
“I heard many very loud gunshots, as if the suspect was on the floor directly above us. I could even hear the sound of bullets hitting the ground,” she added.
Borin Khumtcho, 17, who survived the shooting, told AFP that the perpetrator “was a mentally unstable boy.” He added, “Friends who knew him told me he was interested in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and weapons, and that he was being bullied by many other students.”
The boy recounted, “When I saw him point his gun at me, he seemed highly professional, as if he had received long-term training.”
Police said the number of injured reached 23, without specifying the severity of their injuries.
Deputy Interior Minister Polapoi Suwanchai told local channel Thai PBS that 15 students were injured, not directly by gunfire, but while trying to flee.
Reports conflicted over how the suspect died; some indicated police shot him, while others said he committed suicide.
Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told journalists at the government headquarters in Bangkok, “This is an extremely terrible incident. It should never have happened. How could something like this happen in our country?”
Images published by local media showed the suspect wearing a purple school uniform and carrying a black crossbody bag, with empty bullet casings on the ground.
An AFP reporter observed about 12 mental health specialists arriving at the school, where traffic was almost completely halted.
Thailand is one of the countries with the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with estimates suggesting around 10 million firearms in circulation, equivalent to one gun for every seven citizens.
Previous promises to tighten gun ownership laws have failed to prevent repeated shooting incidents.
In February, Thai police shot and arrested a teenager who opened fire inside a school in the southern part of the country, killing the principal and injuring two students. The teenager had used a firearm belonging to a police officer in that attack.
A local police commander at the time said the suspect had been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment in December but was discharged after his condition improved.
Prior to the attack, the teenager stabbed a police officer with a knife, stole his weapon—a 9mm pistol—and used it to carry out the assault.
In 2022, a former police officer armed with a pistol and a knife stormed Dara Kindergarten in the north of the country, killing 24 children and 12 adults, in one of Thailand’s deadliest massacres.
