Ex-cop kills 22 children, 12 others in Thailand daycare mass shooting

BANGKOK - former policeman killed 34 people including 22 children in a gun rampage at a daycare center in eastern Thailand yesterday, later shooting dead his wife and child at their home before turning his weapon on himself, police said.

Police identified the attacker as a former member of the force who was dismissed from his post last year over drug allegations. He was facing trial on a drugs charge and had been in court in the hours before the shooting, police said.

District police official Chakkraphat Wichitvaidya cited witnesses as saying the gunman was also seen wielding a knife in the attack in the town of Uthai Sawan, 500 km northeast of Bangkok in the Province of Nong Bua Lamphu. About 30 children were at the centre when the gunman arrived, fewer than usual, as heavy rain had kept many people away, district official Jidapa Boonsom, who was working in a nearby office at the time said.

“The shooter came in around lunch time and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first,” said Jidapa, adding that among them was a teacher who was eight months . pregnant.

The gunman forced his way into a locked room where children were sleeping, Jidapa said. She said she thought he killed children there with a knife. Police spokesperson Paisan Luesomboon told broadcaster Thai PBS the gunman had been at a court hearing in connection with a drug case earlier and had gone to the daycare centre to find his child, but the child was not there.

“He was already stressed and when he couldn’t find his child he was more stressed and started shooting,” Paisan said, adding that he had then driven home and killed his wife and child there before taking his own life.

Meanwhile, gunmen in southern Mexico killed at least 18 people including the town’s mayor in an attack in San Miguel Totolapan in Guerrero state on Wednesday, authorities said.

Prosecutor Sandra Luz Valdovinos told Milenio Television that Mayor Conrado Mendoza was among those killed while two others were injured. The motive of the attack was not immediately known. Press reports said the broad daylight attack was staged by the Los Tequileros gang, which is affiliated with a powerful drug cartel called Jalisco Nueva Generacion.

San Miguel Totolapan is a town of about 4, 300 people in an area of Guerrero with a history of violent disputes between cartels.