Killer's neighbours recount how Thai nursery massacre unfolded over three hours of horror

Record ID: 1693093

  • Title: Killer's neighbours recount how Thai nursery massacre unfolded over three hours of horror
  • Date: 12th October 2022
  • Summary: NONG BUA LAMPHU PROVINCE, THAILAND (OCTOBER 10, 2022) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOUSE OF FORMER POLICE SERGEANT PANYA KHAMRAP, PERPETRATOR OF THAI NURSERY MASSACRE NONG BUA LAMPHU PROVINCE, THAILAND (RECENT - OCTOBER 9, 2022) (REUTERS) LAUNDRY OUTSIDE PANYA'S HOUSE CHILD'S TRICYCLE MOTORCYCLE NONG BUA LAMPHU PROVINCE, THAILAND (OCTOBER 10, 2022) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOUSE OF PANYA'S NEIGHBOUR, SOMBAT RATTANI (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) PANYA'S 65-YEAR-OLD NEIGHBOUR, SOMBAT RATTANI, SAYING: "A man fell over here and I pulled him over there. It all happened there, the victim didn't run, he crawled, crawled to this spot." JOURNALIST ASKING: "WAS IT AT THAT TIME WHEN HE GOT SHOT?" "He was run over by a car, then he was shot in the right leg twice. He ended up here, you can see the sand covering the bloodstains." (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) PANYA'S 65-YEAR-OLD NEIGHBOUR, SOMBAT RATTANI, SAYING: "There was gunfire the night before, at around 9 or 10 p.m. I heard three shots. After he was discharged from the police force, I don't know what happened to him but from time to time, he would fire shots. The village chief went to warn him and they quarrelled. He didn't behave like this before, this was after his dismissal." EXTERIOR OF DAYCARE CENTRE WREATHS LAID OUTSIDE CENTRE MILK BOXES AND SNACKS FLOWERS / FRAMED PICTURE ON COFFIN OF NURSERY TEACHER MALIWAN LASOPHA CANDLE BURNING / PICTURE OF MALIWAN MALIWAN'S FATHER, TAWEE LASOPHA, SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) MALIWAN'S FATHER, 56-YEAR-OLD TAWEE LASOPHA, SAYING: "I was informed that people told E (Maliwan) to run and she did. But my daughter, I don’t know what she was thinking, but I think she was concerned about the children and the pregnant teacher, so she went back to try to talk to her friend, who was the perpetrator. But at that stage, it was impossible to talk." PANYA'S NEIGHBOUR, 53-YEAR-OLD SUWAN TONSOMSEN, SHOWING INTERIOR OF BURNT CAR BURNT CAR (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) PANYA'S NEIGHBOUR, 53-YEAR-OLD SUWAN TONSOMSEN, SAYING: JOURNALIST ASKING: "HE BURNT IT WITH A SHOE?" "Yes, he took a shoe, set it alight and placed it down here." JOURNALIST ASKING: "TO BURN THE CAR?" "Yes." (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) PANYA'S NEIGHBOUR, 53-YEAR-OLD SUWAN TONSOMSEN, SAYING: "There was not enough police personnel, they said, and told me we had to wait for the commando unit from Khon Kaen or Nong Bua Lamphu. And when he (Panya) was burning my car, the police hasn't arrived yet." JOURNALIST ASKING: "HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU CALL (THE POLICE)?" "165 times." SUWAN HOLDING MOBILE PHONE SUWAN SHOWING HER MOBILE PHONE WITH CALL RECORDS TO POLICE (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) PANYA'S NEIGHBOUR, 53-YEAR-OLD SUWAN TONSOMSEN, SAYING: "(The police) knew who was the killer was, but they didn't know where his house was. I was the one who told the police which house it was and the police came to surround it. The police traced the perpetrator's routes from social media posts." NONG BUA LAMPHU PROVINCE, THAILAND (OCTOBER 11, 2022) (REUTERS) PEOPLE PAYING RESPECTS TO DECEASED FRAMED PHOTOGRAPHS OF SLAIN CHILDREN (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF, SURACHATE HAKPARN, SAYING: "The first patrol reached the crime scene three minutes after he had begun shooting. We have to admit that the first two patrol officers took a bit of time because the perpetrator was in a rampage. The officers arrived after the killing had been done." MONKS CHANTING RELATIVE OF DECEASED PRAYING RELIGIOUS CEREMONY IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF, SURACHATE HAKPARN, SAYING: "Police were aware of the gun firing incident report back then. And it's not just the police, but civilians firing shots (at home or in public) is an illegal offence. If there had been an arrest then this might not have happened." MONK AND OFFICIAL MAKING FINAL PREPARATIONS AT COFFIN FAMILY MEMBERS OF DECEASED CRYING (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF, SURACHATE HAKPARN, SAYING: "I can say that this was not pre-meditated, because if it was planned, it would have unfolded differently. This is from an exploded emotion. The perpetrator is likely to have accumulated a lot of stress over a long period of time." (NIGHT SHOT) MONK AND ASSISTANTS LIGHTING COFFIN WITH ROYAL FLAME (NIGHT SHOT) COFFINS BURNING
  • Embargoed: 26th October 2022 07:37
  • Keywords: Children Mass shooting Nong Bua Lamphu Panya Khamrap Tha Uthai Thailand daycare centre deaths gun killing massacre nursery rampage
  • Location: NONG BUA LAMPHU PROVINCE, THAILAND
  • City: NONG BUA LAMPHU PROVINCE, THAILAND
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA001154511102022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: At first glance, former police sergeant Panya Khamrap's quiet backyard in Thailand's province of Nong Bua Lamphu looks like any other in the neighbourhood - laundry drying on a line, a child's tricycle left outside.
    But last week, Panya became the perpetrator of Thailand’s worst massacre, murdering 36 people in a three-hour rampage through the district in which he was born, shooting and stabbing to death neighbours, including a childhood friend.
    Neighbours say before the 34-year-old went on the murder spree which left 22 children dead, he had been shooting his 9 mm pistol. The village chief warned Panya about his behaviour and an argument ensued, one neighbour said. The chief could not be reached for comment.
    Early on the fateful day, Panya had a court appointment on a drugs charge. The verdict was due the next day. Before dawn, neighbours heard him arguing with his girlfriend at their small home at the edge of the village. Police said she told him she was leaving him. When he returned home, police said, Panya's girlfriend and her son were gone.
    At around midday, he left in a white pickup truck. Turning a corner, he crashed into a man on a motorcycle outside a small shop run by Sombat Rattani. Panya rolled down the window and shot the man, Sombat said, who witnessed the attack.
    The mortally wounded man crawled towards the shop, pleading for help. The shopkeeper glimpsed Panya, who was a frequent customer, through the window. The gun was pointed at him and Sombat thought he was going to die.
    But Panya did not shoot and instead drove to an intersection where he rammed into a group of people, got out of his truck, and then stabbed them. Three died and several were wounded.
    From there he drove to the administrative complex where the Uthai Sawan Child Development Centre, a pink, one-story building, is located next to a government office.
    Teachers in the nursery had put the children down for their nap by the time Panya arrived at around 12:30 p.m. He attacked people in the courtyard, shooting some, and slashing others with a long blade that farmers use for hacking crops. Several people were killed there.
    Then, Panya shot twice at the nursery door and kicked it open, according to a witness. For about 20 minutes he went from room to room, shooting teachers and slashing the sleeping children with his machete.
    Some teachers fled over a wall but not Supaporn Pramongmook, 26, who was eight months pregnant. Another teacher, Maliwan Lasopha, tried to plead with Panya because she was a childhood friend. He killed them both.
    "I was informed that people told E (Maliwan) to run and she did. But my daughter, I don’t know what she was thinking, but I think she was concerned about the children and the pregnant teacher, so she went back to try to talk to her friend (Panya)," Maliwan's father told Reuters.
    After driving back to his neighbourhood, Panya was approached by a neighbour whom he shot dead before fatally attacking another, said another witness.
    Neighbour Suwan Tonsomsen said she repeatedly phoned the police.
    "They said there were not enough police personnel," she said, and they had to wait for a commando unit.
    "I made 165 calls to the police," she said.
    Suwan said that Panya tried to set fire to her car and left. He walked back to his house where, at around 3 p.m., he burned his truck, shot his girlfriend, her son, and then himself.
    Thailand's deputy police chief, General Surachate Hakparn, told Reuters the violence resulted from "exploded emotion," pointing to his dismissal from the police and legal, money, and family troubles.
    Surachate acknowledged the police response had been slow and officers arrived too late to stop the killing. He also pointed to the law, which forbids even licensed gun owners from firing at home or in public.
    "If there had been an arrest then this might not have happened," he said, referring to police reports of Panya discharging his weapon in the public days before the massacre.
    (Production: Vorasit Satienlerk, Kwang Jiraporn Kuhakan, Juarawee Kittisilpa, Jacinta Goh)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register