The 14-year-old attacker fired 40 rounds according to the Royal Thai Police on Thursday hitting innocent people at the Siam Paragon Shopping Centre eleven times including the 34-year-old mother of 5-year-old twins who he executed at point blank range with his engineered Glock 9mm replica gun. He surrendered to police only when he ran out of ammunition.
A 16-year-old Chinese woman, the niece of the 34-year-old Chinese tourist murdered at the Siam Paragon Shopping Centre in Bangkok on Tuesday, has told Chinese internet audiences of the terror on the second floor of the centre after 4.20 pm last Tuesday as women scrambled for cubicles in the restroom as the 14-year-old gunman approached and entered, murdering her aunt as she lay collapsed on the floor. Over 48 hours after Tuesday’s shocking mass shooting in Bangkok, the identity of the teenage attacker or his parents has not been released after his family failed to appear on Wednesday at the Juvenile Court in Bangkok where his medical status was left unresolved. The gunman, it is understood, was a student of a private school near the upmarket shopping centre and resided in the western Bang Khae district of the city.
The heartbreaking nature of Tuesday’s Shopping Centre massacre in Bangkok when a 14-year-old private school student gunned down 7 people killing 2 women is being brought home to audiences in China as the 16-year-old niece of the slain tourist, 34-year-old Ms Zhao Jinnan, who was at the Siam Paragon shopping centre on Tuesday afternoon, with her twin 5-year-old daughters, has come forward to tell the story of terror and tragedy that unfolded.
Chloe Wan, who is currently still in Bangkok and who has been joined by her father from Beijing, told audiences that the five-year-old twin daughters who were with Ms Zhao when she was mercilessly gunned down, do not yet know that their mother has passed away.
Harrowing and chilling tale of how the 34-year-old tourist met her end on the second floor of the Siam Paragon Shopping Centre told to Chinese audiences
Ms Chloe told a harrowing tale of women taking refuge in a restroom on the second floor of the Siam Paragon Centre and scrambling to get inside cubicles as the gunman appeared near the doorway to the facility and entered.
Speaking on the popular microblogging platform Weibo in China, she said her aunt had collapsed outside the cubicles of the facility of the upmarket shopping centre.
She was then callously murdered by the gunman using a modified handgun, a 9mm Glock replica engineered to fire live rounds, which he appears to have bought from local sellers in Bangkok he was introduced to online.
Police have already arrested, charged and identified three people linked with the sale of the murder weapon to the accused.
‘I don’t know how she got hurt. When I saw her she was already unconscious. I could only see her bleeding from her mouth,’ she told a horrified Chinese audience.
A kind Thai woman’s heartbreak revealed as she soothed one of the 5-year-old daughters of the Chinese victim – ‘most sorrowful day of my life’
Amid the pandemonium which commenced after 4.20 pm on Tuesday, a Thai woman told how she provided succour and comfort to one of Ms Zhao’s twin daughters.
The Thai woman had found the girl in the melee as emergency responders tried to provide first aid and resuscitation to the 34-year-old tourist.
She described what she saw on Tuesday as the ‘most sorrowful day of my life’ and recalled she had assured the young girl that she would be reunited with her mother shortly.
The Thai police chief, General Torsak Sukwimol, on Wednesday, outlined at least five charges against the 14-year-old student from a private school located near the Siam Paragon Centre.
The defendant has not yet been identified by authorities to the press and his parents did not formally appear before Juvenile Court on Wednesday when he was brought before it on charges.
However, it appears they were present and supporting their son when he was admitted to the juvenile detention centre on Wednesday where he is reported to be receiving mental health care as well as being screened for Covid 19.
He has been charged with premeditated murder, attempted murder, carrying and firing a firearm in a public place while also being in possession of an illegal firearm.
Well-coordinated and effective police response in cooperation with security at the Shopping Centre on Tuesday praised for saving the lives of shoppers
The attack on Tuesday was brought under control within 15 to 20 minutes and police from Police Division 6 in the Metropolitan Police Bureau area have been praised for their tactical response to the situation which saw them appear within five minutes while security services at the high-class shopping centre responded efficiently, evacuating most shoppers to safety based on regular quarterly drills practised by the management of the centre.
It is thought that this certainly saved lives by denying the killer further and easier targets.
However, on Wednesday, it emerged that the reason that the 14-year-old killer ultimately surrendered to police was that he had ultimately run out of ammunition and had no more bullets to fire.
Police on Thursday revealed that the attacker fired 40 rounds in total on Tuesday of which eleven hit members of the public on the G, M, 2nd and 3rd floors of the Siam Paragon complex.
14-year-old insisted to police including interrogating officers he was being stalked and pursued by an unseen entity in an incoherent response or narrative
Once overpowered by police, who were in the process of cordoning off the shopping centre, perimeter by perimeter, the 14-year-old appeared to respond as if he was being stalked or followed by an entity persistently telling officers that the same spectre was ‘over there’ and a threat to him.
The attacker was questioned by police officers at length within the shopping centre on Tuesday.
He maintained this narrative and was even joined by the Deputy Minister of the Interior Mr Chada Thaiset who also conversed with him.
Police, on Wednesday, as charges were announced against the student, underlined that it was yet to be proven from psychiatric tests whether he was fit to stand trial.
Also on Wednesday, Police Major General Nakharin Sukhonthawit, the Commander of Metropolitan Police Division 6, confirmed that three individuals had been arrested for selling the prop gun to the killer and providing him with the lethal ammunition used to kill and maim.
Police are also said to be considering whether to press charges against the parents of the 14-year-old who also have not been named, under the Child Protection Act.
Stash of ammunition with an array of calibres and BB gun seized at attacker’s home will lead to more charges says Metropolitan Police Division 6 chief
Police Major General Nakharin said that a search and examination of the 14-year-old’s bedroom at his home, in western Bangkok’s Lak Song subdistrict in the Bang Khae area of the city, found ammunition with a wide range of calibres including a BB gun.
This could also see the teenager facing further charges.
The mental condition of the accused was to the fore when the 14-year-old appeared before the Juvenile Court in Bangkok on Wednesday.
A request was made that he be referred to the Galya Rajanagarindra Institute for Psychiatric Treatment but this was refused by the court until it was established whether the 14-year-old could take part in his defence.
The mental state of the teenager has yet to be determined by the court.
The suspect, who was under heavy guard when he appeared before the juvenile court hearing, was remanded to a juvenile detention centre in Bangkok.
Court told he heard voices telling him to kill
Police evidence to the court was that when interviewed on Tuesday he appeared ‘confused’ and failed to give them a coherent explanation for his actions.
The court was told the accused said he heard voices telling him to execute people.
On Wednesday, Dr Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, the Head of the Department of Medical Services at the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health or the Children’s Hospital, came forward to confirm that the suspect before the court had been treated by the Institute one year ago.
He declined to give further information citing patient confidentiality.
Earlier reports, in the aftermath of the shooting, attributed to police sources, suggested that the killer had been treated at Rajavithi Hospital in the Ratchathewi district of Bangkok, a medical centre for excellence and training hospital.
Chinese Embassy offers support and assistance to all tourists involved in the incident as Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs visit mission
It is understood that the Chinese embassy has been in contact with all victims of the shooting and is providing assistance to them and their families in China.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and Deputy Prime Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nu-Kara, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, called on the Chinese ambassador Mr Han Zhiqiang to express their condolences on behalf of the government.
The Prime Minister has also met Chinese shooting victims in hospital in Bangkok while the Siam Paragon Shopping Centre itself has become a focus of flowers being left by Thai locals and Chinese tourists in the capital mourning the deaths that took place on Tuesday evening.
The publicity of the tragedy will further damage Thailand’s image in China.
The niece of Ms Zhao, Ms Chloe, showed pictures in the last few days to Chinese online audiences of one of the five-year-old girls who was with her mother before she was murdered, wearing blood-stained clothes and carrying a backpack which also had splatters of blood.
Days before the anniversary of another dark event
The killing occurred just days before the firts anniversary of the massacre in the northern province of Nong Bua Lamphu when ex-policeman Panya Khamrab slaughtered two dozen nursery school children and 12 adults in the Na Klang District before killing himself and his family.
Slaughter of innocents by ex-policeman driven by drugs in Nong Bua Lamphu shocks Thailand
Crazed Thai soldier kills 20 and takes hostages in Nakhon Ratchasima – horror scenes broadcast on Facebook
In 2020, a serving soldier, Sergeant Major Jakapanth Thomma, using firepower stolen from an ammunition depot, murdered 29 people and wounded 58 at the Terminal 21 shopping centre in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Service for the Myanmar staff member who died
On Thursday, staff at Siam Paragon held religious services for the young Myanmar national, identified as Ms Tawan who died on Tuesday.
It was held at the Wat Phasukmanee Chak in the Pak Kret District of Nonthaburi.
It is understood that the management of the Siam Paragon Shopping Centre has offered to continue to pay the woman’s salary to compensate her family for the income lost because of her demise on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has vowed that his government will bring in ‘preventative measures’ to deal with the threat moving forward.
‘I am confident the Siam Paragon and government officials did their best to minimise the casualties and damage,’ he said on Wednesday. ‘Let this be the only time this happens. My government will give priority to preventative measures.
Management at Siam Paragon paid tribute to Ms Tawan and her work at the shopping centre including her command of languages and desire to help others in the last 48 hours.
Ms Tawan’s mother, on Thursday, made an emotional appeal to be allowed to travel to Bangkok to attend her daughter’s final funeral rites which are due on Monday 9th October.
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Further reading:
Police chief confirms 2 dead with reports of at least one more fatality in Bangkok mass shooting
14-year-old boy murdered Chinese tourist in a terror attack on Bangkok’s Siam Paragon Centre
Police arrest Chinese kidnapper with similar details to an abduction for ransom case in April
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