Thailand: 14-yr-old suspect arrested for killing 3 at Bangkok mall

In response to a shooting at a posh mall in Bangkok’s capital on Tuesday, Thai police claimed they had detained a 14-year-old suspect. According to emergency services, the shooting left three persons dead and four others injured. The Siam Paragon mall shooting suspect, 14, was detained and was being questioned, according to a post on the Metropolitan Police Detective Department’s Facebook page. An image of a police officer capturing and handcuffing a person who was lying face down on the ground was circulated by emergency services. An guy wearing khaki cargo trousers and a baseball cap was depicted in a grainy image shared earlier on the Central Investigation Bureau’s Facebook page. Unverified social media footage displayed chaotic scenes with people fleeing the mall’s entrance while security personnel escorted them out. In one of the films, customers are shown hiding in a restaurant’s dim interior as they watch on live television the gridlocked traffic outside the mall as it pours down rain. In Thailand, gun violence is not unusual. In a gun-and-knife attack on a daycare last year, an ex-police officer killed 22 children. In a shooting rampage in and around the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, a soldier shot and killed at least 29 people and injured 57 others. Srettha Thavisin, the prime minister, expressed worry about the situation. “I am aware of the shooting event at Siam Paragon and have ordered the police to investigate. I am most worried about public safety,” he posted on social media platform X. (With agency inputs)