Dealing with grief, parents arrived one by one to place solitary white flowers on the stairs of the Thai nursery where almost two dozen of their kids were slain.
As they put the blossoms on the steps of the little, yellow-walled structure, some lowered their heads in prayer, while others held each other in comfort, memorials to 22 young lives cut prematurely.
One mother sobbed uncontrollably, clutching her late son’s favorite red-and-yellow blanket and his half-empty milk bottle.
Hundreds of traumatized families assembled outside the nursery, in a local government property on the outskirts of a community deep in the verdant farmlands of northeast Thailand.
Panya Khamrab, a former police officer, went on a gun-and-knife spree that killed at least 36 individuals, including his own wife and kid, in one of Thailand’s bloodiest mass murders before killing himself.
Naliwan Duangkot, 21, consoled the boy’s mother, her 19-year-old sister-in-law Panita Prawant a, after losing her two-year-old nephew Kamram at the nursery.
He was really lovely and compassionate, and he constantly shared stuff with children and everyone, she added.
Neighbors informed the family about the shooting on Thursday.
Panita and her husband went to the location on their motorcycle to look for Kamram, only to discover the worst.
Panita fought back tears as she cradled her 11-month-old baby Kanta and murmured, it is inconceivable.
– The community was astonished –
At the hospital in Nong Bua Lam Phu, the nearest town, families of the wounded visited their loved ones in turn, providing food, diapers, and other supplies.
As the day progressed and the heat climbed in the searing tropical sun, an increasing number of individuals gathered at the nursery – the entire little rural community unified in mourning.
Adults sat in stunned quiet, their incredulous silence interrupted by occasional gentle tears, where kids had merrily played two days before.
Buarai Tanontong, 51, who lost two three-year-old grandkids, was among many who were taken aback by what happened.
She was astonished and terrified. She couldn’t sleep since she didn’t imagine it would be her two grandkids, outside the nursery, she gripped her devastated daughter’s shoulder.
According to local Kamjad Pra-intr, the shooter was a well-known character in the neighborhood.
Everybody is aware of who the shooter is. He used to work as a cop. He was a decent person, but everyone understood he got into meth later on, she stated.
Because it’s a tiny village, everyone knows everyone else and they’re like a family; She knows three or four kids that died there.
The pain of finding that his three-year-old grandson was among the deceased was detailed by Kam Pornnikom.
His heart almost stopped beating. His parents had divorced, so he was like a father figure to him, and his grandma was like a mother figure to him, he stated.
He is completely dumbfounded. How could he do such a thing to kids?
Terrible! May those beautiful souls rest in peace. May the family find strength and comfort to bear this unimaginable loss and pain.
