Madness, An Unspeakable Tragedy

Police guard the centre as relatives of those killed gather  EPA

"We are still investigating all of this and have to learn from it. Today is the first day and we don't have all the details."  

"After inspecting the crime scene, we found that the perpetrator tried to break in and he mainly used a knife to commit the crime by killing a number of small children."   

"Then he got out and started killing anyone he met along the way with a gun or the knife until he got home. We surrounded the house and then found that he committed suicide in his home."

Local police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapha

 

"The teacher who died, she had a child in her arms."

"I didn't think he would kill children, but he shot at the door and shot right through it."

Witness

 

"The shooter came in around lunchtime and shot four or five officials [one, an eight-month-pregnant teacher] at the childcare centre first."

"At first people thought it was fireworks."

Jidapa Boonsom, local official

Residents line up to donate blood at the hospital in Uthai Sawan after the attack that police said also saw at least 10 people wounded, six critically. (Warnwarn Ch/The Associated Press)

The witness to the mass shooting at a Thai daycare in the northeast of the country described staff locking the door when they saw a man approaching the facility holding a gun. That precaution failed to keep him out; he simply shot his way in to the daycare. The result was 37 people killed in a less advantaged part of the country.

Dozens of the dead were preschool children and some of their teachers. When the assailant had somehow satisfied his psychopathic rampage, he  fled the scene. But he was not yet finished, it appeared. He murdered his wife and their children as well, before killing himself. 

Video footage in the wake of the attack showed frantic parents and other family members crying inconsolably outside the building. Also shown was the floor of one of the rooms inside the daycare blood-splattered, sleeping mats scattered about. These were  young children, after all, under age five, whose need for daytime naps emphasized their infancy.

The killer was later identified as a 34-year-old former police officer who was due in court several days later to attend a hearing in a case involving methamphetamine possession. The police chief informed reporters that the weapon used in the murder spree was a 9mm pistol. He had with him as well a shotgun and a knife.

Two adults and 22 children were killed at the daycare facility alone, with two additional children killed in another setting. A dozen people were wounded. Thailand has one of the highest civilian gun ownership rates in Asia; 15.1 weapons per 100 population.

In this image taken from video, a woman is comforted outside the site of a shooting at a Thailand daycare centre Thursday, in the town of Uthai Sawan, in the northeastern province of Nongbua Lamphu. At least 37 people were killed in the attack, police said. (Mungkorn Sriboonreung Rescue Group/AP)