Thai nursery massacre unfolded over three hours of horror

THA UTHAI, Thailand, Oct 12 (Reuters) – In the days before he killed 36 people, including 22 children stabbed as they slept, the former police sergeant behind Thailand’s worst massacre was firing guns in his back yard.

For several nights the sound of 34-year-old Panya Khamrap’s 9 mm pistol cracked the silence in the sleepy village of Tha Uthai, neighbours said.

It was the latest show of violence from the former police officer, once a village success story who became an angry, introverted man in a downward spiral, though still invested with some of the authority his old job bestowed.

“How were we going to report him to the police? He was the police,” said Phuwan Polyeam, 29, who lives close by with her two children.

Panya killed the 36 people in a three-hour rampage through the district in which he was born, shooting and stabbing to death neighbours, including a childhood friend.

The 22 child victims at the nursery were boys and girls aged two to five. Seven are in hospital.

The violence – the deadliest massacre of children anywhere in recent years – has stunned the country.

Authorities initially blamed drugs. Panya was described by police as a user of methamphetamine pills known as yaba and was fired in January for drug possession.

But an autopsy found no trace of drugs in Panya’s system on the day of the killings, on Thursday last week, police said.

Thailand’s deputy police chief, General Surachate Hakparn, told Reuters the violence resulted from “exploded emotion”, pointing to his dismissal from the police and legal, money, and family troubles.

Panya’s movements that day are obscure. There were multiple killings in different locations and police have yet to release a comprehensive account.

Reuters established a timeline of events through interviews with neighbours, witnesses, and an investigating officer.

They recounted three hours of horror and a slow police response. Phone records confirmed many details.

Surachate acknowledged the police response had been slow and officers arrived too late to stop the killing. He also pointed to the law, which forbids even licensed gun owners from firing at home or in public.

“If there had been an arrest then this might not have happened,” he said.

TROUBLING SIGNS

Nong Bua Lam Phu is a poor northeastern province lush with rice and sugarcane fields.

Panya grew up in the remote village of Tha Uthai and attended high school before winning a place to study law at a top Bangkok university. He later got a job with the police, working in some of the capital’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.

But in 2020 he arrived back home. Newly divorced, he moved in with a woman who worked at a karaoke bar and her son.

He worked at a police station but in January was fired for drugs. Colleagues said he was hot tempered and started fights.

There were other troubling signs. A neighbour said he locked his girlfriend and her son inside when he went out.

The deputy chief of a neighbouring village told media Panya had praised the 2020 massacre of 29 people in…