Thai Nursery Killers 3-Hour Rampage Started After Fight With Girlfriend

In the days before he murdered 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.

In the days before 36 people were killed, including 22 children who were stabbed in their sleep, a former police sergeant was behind Thailand's worst massacre, shooting from rifles in his backyard.

Neighbors said the sound of a 34-year-old Banya Khamrab 9mm pistol broke the silence for several nights in the quiet village of Tha Uthai.

It was the latest display of violence by a former police officer, who was once a village success story who became an angry man and plunged into a downward spiral, though still invested in some of the power his old job gave him.

"How are we going to report him to the police? He was the cop," said Fuan Pulliam, 29.

who lives nearby with her two children.

Banya murdered 36 people in a three-hour rampage in the area where he was born, shooting and stabbing neighbors to death, including a childhood friend.

The 22 victims were children in foster care, boys and girls between the ages of two and five. Seven are in the hospital.

The violence - the most serious massacre of children anywhere anywhere in recent years - has stunned the country.

At first the authorities blamed drugs. Banya was described by police as using methamphetamine pills known as yaba and she was expelled in January for drug possession.

Police said an autopsy found no trace of drugs in Banya's system on the day of the killing on Thursday last week.

Thailand's deputy police chief, General Surachat Hakparn, told Reuters the violence was caused by an "explosive emotion," citing his dismissal from the police and legal, financial and family problems.

Banya's movements on that day are ambiguous. There have been multiple murders at different locations and the police have yet to publish a comprehensive account.

Reuters established a timeline of events through interviews with neighbors, witnesses and an investigative officer.

They recounted three hours of terror and the slow reaction of the police.

Phone records confirmed many details.

Surachate admitted that the police response was slow and that the officers arrived too late to stop the killing.

He also referred to the law that prohibits even licensed gun owners from shooting at home or in public.

"If there had been an arrest, this would not have happened," he said.

worrying signs

Nong Bua Lam Phu is a poor northeastern province filled with paddy and sugarcane fields.

Banya grew up in the remote village of Tha Uthai and attended high school before winning a place to study law at a major Bangkok university. He later got a job in the police, working in some of the capital's wealthiest neighborhoods.

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

He was working in a police station but in January he was fired for drugs. His colleagues said that he was very irritable and started quarrels.

There were other worrying signs.

A neighbor said he locked his girlfriend and her son inside when he got out.

The deputy chief of a nearby village told the media that Banya hailed the 2020 massacre of 29 people in another county by a soldier, saying it would have killed more. She refused to be interviewed.

Another neighbor said that days before his agitation, the village chief had warned Banya about his behaviour. The neighbour, Sawan Tunsumsen, said they argued and the village chief was afraid. The president could not be reached for comment.

Early on the day of the massacre, Banya had a court date on drug charges. The verdict was due to be pronounced the next day.

Before dawn, neighbors heard him arguing with his girlfriend in their little house on the outskirts of the village. The police said she told him she was leaving him.

"Very fast"

Reuters could not prove what happened in court, but the media, citing neighbors, reported that Banya's lawyer asked him to show evidence of good character.

Another neighbor told Reuters he saw Banya's mother holding his university degree.

The police said that when he returned home, Banya's girlfriend and her son had disappeared.

At about midday, he left in a white pickup truck. On the turn, he hit a man on a motorcycle outside a convenience store. He rolled the window and shot him, according to witness Sumpat Ratani, who ran the shop.

Sombat said the mortally wounded man crawled into the store, pleading for help. Banya glimpsed through the window,

He aimed his gun at him and thought he was going to die. They knew each other.

Banya bought water from his shop.

Banya did not shoot. Instead, he drove to an intersection where he hit a group of people, left his truck, and stabbed them. Three were killed and several others were wounded.

From there he drove to the administrative complex where the Uthai Sawan Child Development Center is located, a pink one-story building, next to a government office.

The teachers at the nursery had put the children on a nap by the time Banya arrived around 12:30pm.

Attacked people in the yard, shot some of them,

Others cut with a long blade that farmers use to hack crops.

Two died on the spot and three in hospital.

"Everything happened so quickly, there was blood everywhere," said office worker Kitisak Bulbrakap, 29.

"I saw the wounded and the dead sitting together at a table as if nothing had happened."

people ran. two female employees,

Jedava Bonsum, 48, and Sauluk Keita, 25, rushed to an office overlooking the nursery.

Some staff called the police but were told they were busy elsewhere.

A witness told the media that Banya twice shot and kicked the nursery door.

For about 20 minutes he was moving from room to room,

He shoots teachers and cuts children with his machete.

Some teachers ran over the wall but not Subaporn Pramungmuk, 26, who was eight months pregnant. Another teacher, Maliwan Lasova, tried to appeal to Banya. They played together as children.

He killed them both.

"What are you doing?"

The office staff said Banya quietly got out, grabbed the blade and drove off.

News of the violence spread with images appearing on social media. Soimon Sudvanpetak, the aunt of one of the children killed that day, rushed to the compound to see two bodies outside the nursery. His teacher came to apologise,

"There is nothing she can do to save the children," she said.

The only child out of the nursery unscathed, a three-year-old named Mom, was carried with a blanket covering her eyes.

After returning to his neighborhood, a neighbor approached Banya. "What are you doing?" asked the man.

Banya replied, "I'm here to kill you." Witness Voan Pulliam said he shot and killed the neighbor before attacking another.

She was sheltering in her house with her two young children, and pressed her hand to her son's mouth to keep him calm, and her mother-in-law, Soan Tonsomssen, sent frantic letters. Someone read "He's here".

Sawan's phone records showed numerous calls to the police. “They said the police weren't enough,” she said, and they had to wait for a commando unit. "It took them a while," she said.

Sawan said he left after Banya tried to set their car on fire. He returned to his home where, about 3 p.m., he burned his truck, and shot his girlfriend,

Her son then himself.

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