PETALING JAYA – The teenager suspected of killing two foreigners and leaving five others injured in the Thai shopping mall shooting incident told police, “A voice had told him to shoot”.
Thai national police chief Torsak Sukvimol said he had earlier spoken to the suspect to calm him down.
“The suspect appeared to hear someone speaking to him, he was hearing things, a voice, he said told him to shoot,” Torsak said as reported in Bangkok Post.
Torsak also revealed that the 14-year-old suspect had modified a handgun, designed to fire only blanks, to enable it to fire live ammunition.
Two women were killed in yesterday’s shooting incident at the Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok.
The first was a 34-year-old Chinese woman who died on the ground floor of the shopping centre. The other was a woman from Myanmar who succumbed to her injuries at the Police General Hospital.
Police also said the suspect had been receiving psychological treatment and had skipped his medication.
“Usually. we don’t get the suspect alive. This case is an important case study for us. We need information from the young man,” Torsak said.
Torsak also pointed out that the suspect had certain rights as a minor, among them the right to be questioned in the presence of a counsellor.
The Post also said that the suspect was a student at a private school in Bangkok and his parents are professors.
When police searched his room, they found many rounds of ammunition, including 49 9mm bullets and 15 spent shells of various sizes.
There were also videos of him practising using a firearm on his phone. – The Vibes, October 4, 2023
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