Thai soldier kills at least 21 at shopping mall
Gunman dies in standoff after shooting rampage that began at army base
BANGKOK— Thai security forces killed a soldier early Sunday after he allegedly rampaged through a bustling shopping mall and a nearby army camp, killing at least 21 people and engaging officers in an hours-long standoff, Thai officials said.
After live-streaming part of the shooting on Facebook, the gunman holed up in the mall as police secured the area in the early-morning darkness. The sound of gunfire emanated from the building before 3 a.m., and ambulances were called for potentially more casualties, the Associated Press reported.
Eight hostages, some of whom were wounded, were rescued when the gunman was killed, Reuters and Al Jazeera reported, citing security sources.
Authorities identified the alleged shooter, who carried an assault rifle and was clad in camouflage and a helmet, as 32year-old Jakrapanth Thomma, a sergeant in the Thai military.
Saturday’s violence began at about 3:30 p.m., when police say the gunman fatally shot his commanding officer, took several military firearms and drove about 15 kilometres in a stolen Humvee to the Terminal 21 mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, where he fired at shoppers and drivers on the packed roadways. The city, also known as Korat, is about 3 1⁄ hours from 2 Bangkok.
The precise movements of the gunman throughout the city remain unclear. Authorities have not said how many people died at the army camp and how many were killed at the shopping mall. At least 31 people were reported injured.
A police officer in Nakhon Ratchasima told The Associated Press by phone that the killing began when the alleged gunman fatally shot another soldier and a woman and wounded a third person before he escaped with guns and ammunition.
Police said they retrieved the shooter’s mother from neighbouring Chaiyaphum province, about 100 kilometres away, and planned to use her as leverage to negotiate with the suspect. “We don’t know why he did this,” Thai Defense Ministry spokesperson Kongcheep Tantrawanit told Al Jazeera. “It appears he went mad.”
The Bangkok Post identified the deceased commanding officer as Col. Anantharot Krasae, 48, with whom the alleged gunman reportedly had a conflict. A 63-year-old woman and another soldier were also killed at the military camp, the newspaper reported.
On Saturday, a witness told the Post she was inside the dental office where she works at the Terminal 21 mall when she heard gunshots and saw people running. They locked the door, turned off the lights and shut down the air conditioning. Eventually, a security guard told them to leave, the 36-yearold woman said, so they fled through the fire exit and crawled on the ground to avoid gunfire.
“The police just told us to run, and run away as fast as we could,” said the woman, who identified herself only by her first name, Yannapat.
She said the streets surrounding the mall were closed off and police asked bystanders to stay at least a kilometre away from the scene.
Nattaya Nganiem shot a video from outside the mall and said she and her family had left just before the gunfire began.
“We couldn’t see the gunman, but we could hear the sound of the gun. It was terrifying,” Nganiem told The Associated Press. “I can’t believe this is happening in my hometown. I mean, this shopping mall, we go there almost every other day.”
Mass shootings in Thailand are rare. The right to private gun ownership is not guaranteed in the country, but firearm smuggling rates are high and the black market is thriving, according to the University of Sydney School of Public Health’s international gun policy site.
The alleged gunman periodically posted videos and photos to Facebook during the rampage. “No one can escape death,” he wrote, and he asked if he should “give up,” The Associated Press reported. He also mentioned his exhausted trigger finger. Facebook suspended the gunman’s account soon after the videos began to circulate online.
Cellphone video published by the Thai Rath network shows the suspected gunman emerging from behind a vehicle to shoot at a motorcyclist, who appears to be struck as he flees. The gunman can also be seen firing volleys down the street outside the mall as bystanders sprint to safety and take cover amid abandoned cars.
Surveillance video from inside the mall showed the suspected gunman, his face obscured by a balaclava, toting a rifle on his shoulder as he strolled across the shopping centre’s white marble floor.
Other photos and video on the Thai Rath broadcast show the purported gunman in selfies holding a variety of firearms and wearing digital camouflage issued to the military. In one photo taken outside, he poses with a fire raging behind him.
The gunman’s effort to spread violent imagery on social media as the killings unfolded echo the 2019 massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, where a gunman used Facebook to livestream his attack on two mosques. And like that incident, video and photos taken by the gunman rocked across message boards such as 4chan.
It was unclear what kinds of firearms the gunman took from the camp, although he posed in selfies on social media with a variant of the HK G3 rifle, used by the Thai military, along with a pistol.
The annual rate of gun deaths in 2016 in Thailand was 2.54 per 100,000 people, compared to 11.96 in the United States that same year.