Former Thai Police Sergeant Kills 38 in Mass Shooting
Thai children sit with their teacher at daycare. (Flickr)
After leaving a court hearing for his drug trial, former Police Sergeant Panya Khamrab opened fire at a daycare center in the Na Klang district of Nong Bua Lamphu, Thailand, on October 6th. In just minutes, Khamrab killed 35 individuals–including 21 children–and injured 10 others. Khamrab then fled the daycare and returned home to kill his 3-year old son, his wife, and, finally, himself. This collision of drug abuse and gun violence marked one of the highest-casualty shootings in Thailand’s recent history, and the country’s first mass shooting since February 2020.
While Khamrab’s motives remain unknown to police, he did recently face criminal charges from Thai authorities. In January 2022, Khambrab was arrested for and reportedly confessed to drug possession. Five months later, on June 15, Khamrab was expelled from the Royal Thai Police force for possession of methamphetamine pills. Although he was no longer a member of the police force, Khamrab still owned the guns he had acquired as an officer.
According to his mother, Khamrab had attended a court hearing for his drug trial hours before the mass shooting. When describing her son’s state to the national police, Khambrab’s mother said that he had “appeared stressed out, took some narcotics and started to feel paranoid,” after which he “grabbed his gun and headed to the child development center.”
Thailand has relatively strict gun laws that ban assault weapons and require background checks to acquire a firearm. While civilians face a well-regulated process to acquire firearms, public officials can purchase weapons from the government with relative ease and at a steep discount. Khamrab’s position as a police officer granted him easy access to guns, even after his departure from the force.
Since the October 6 shooting, Thai authorities have moved to address this loophole in gun regulations. On October 10, national police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapas announced Royal Thai Police plans to confiscate guns from current or former police officers exhibiting erratic behavior. That same day Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered law enforcement agencies to restrict gun ownership criteria and snuff out drug use across Thailand.
Western coverage of the Nong Bua Lamphu shooting portrayed the event as a frenzied media spectacle, but the Thai government has attempted to keep the story away from media attention. The Royal Thai Police has urged citizens not to share any media from the crime scene to avoid retraumatizing the victims’ families, and Thai press coverage has included few photos from the event.
Authorities were, therefore, quick to respond when two U.S. CNN correspondents broke into the cordoned-off daycare to report on site. On October 9, the national police announced plans to press charges against the two journalists and the Immigration Bureau revoked their visas, forcing them to leave the country. Meanwhile, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) and Thai Journalists Association (TJA) criticized the U.S. reporters for their behavior.
As Western media outlets continue to monitor the situation from afar, Thai authorities continue to grapple with the implications of a mass shooting at home.