Thai city copes with fallout of shooting
Nakhon Ratchasima (Thailand), Feb. 10: Authorities in northeastern Thailand began releasing bodies to relatives on Monday after security forces cornered and killed a soldier who carried out the country’s worst mass shooting in an hourslong siege at a shopping mall.
The soldier killed 29 people starting with his commanding officer in a stunning tragedy that began Saturday and ended Sunday morning when security forces shot dead the heavily armed attacker in Terminal 21 Korat, an airport-themed mall in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The gunman, Sgt. Maj. Jakrapanth Thomma, 31, was infuriated at a land deal brokered by his commander’s mother-in-law, as far as authorities have been able to determine. She was another of his victims.
The death toll surpassed Thailand’s last major attack on civilians, a 2015 bombing at a shrine in
Bangkok killing 20 people that was allegedly carried out by human traffickers in retaliation for a crackdown on their network.
Messages of sympathy for the latest tragedy were sent by several countries.
The US Embassy said it “stands with the people of Thailand, saddened by tragic events in Nakhon Ratchasima.”
Throughout Monday, people dropped by the Terminal 21 mall to offer flowers and leave notes expressing sympathy.