Vigil at Nakhon Ratchasima statue draws thousands
Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand – 9 Feb 2020. Candlelight flickered across the bronze face of Thao Suranari on Sunday night as several thousand residents gathered at the city’s landmark statue to mourn 29 people shot dead by Sgt. Maj. Jakrapanth Thomma during a 16-hour rampage that began Saturday afternoon and ended at dawn when security forces killed him inside the Terminal 21 shopping mall. Fifty-seven others were wounded in the country’s worst mass shooting, triggered, investigators say, by a personal land dispute with his commanding officer.
Jakrapanth, 32, began shortly after 3 p.m. on Saturday by killing Col. Anantarote Krasae at the officer’s house, according to police. He then drove to his army base, shot his way into an armoury and helped himself to an HK33 assault rifle, two M60 machine guns, boxes of ammunition and a stolen Humvee.
Livestreams and CCTV show him firing at vehicles while racing the 15 km into the city centre, leaving a trail of bodies on the highway and in the mall car park. Once inside Terminal 21 he herded hostages, posted selfies and the message “Death is inevitable for everyone” on Facebook, and kept special-forces teams at bay through the night. Troops finally cornered him on the mall’s basement level shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday; he was shot dead after refusing to surrender.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha travelled to Nakhon Ratchasima on Sunday afternoon and met wounded survivors in Maharat Hospital. Quested by reporters on why the siege lasted so long, he replied: “The authorities did their best to end the siege without compromising the safety of the civilians trapped inside the mall.” He added: “I hope this is the only one and the last incident and that it never happens again.
No one wants this to happen. It could be because of this person’s mental health in this particular moment.” Defence ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Kongcheep Tantrawanich said a full inquiry would cover “every minute from the first shot to the last” and promised to review how a single soldier gained access to so much firepower. By sunset the plaza around the Thao Suranari statue had turned into an impromptu shrine.
Monks in saffron robes chanted while families queued to place white roses and light incense for victims whose names were read aloud over a loudspeaker. Many wept openly; others stood in silence holding up mobile-phone flashlights. “We came because we could have been inside that mall,” said 41-year-old mall worker Nongnuch Saengkham, still wearing her employer’s badge.
“My shift starts at 5 p.m.; the shooting began at 3. Thirty minutes later and I would have been in the food court.” City officials estimate that more than 5,000 people passed through the vigil before midnight.
Temples across the province have scheduled simultaneous merit-making ceremonies on Monday to speed the souls of the dead. Police sources say Jakrapanth had quarrelled with Col. Anantarote over a housing deal in which the soldier claimed he was cheated of 50,000 baht. The army revealed that the gunman had received no recent disciplinary action and had passed standard psychological screening.
Critics point to loose controls on military weapons. “If a private dispute can end with 29 corpses, something is broken,” said Chamnan Chanruang, a political-science lecturer at Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University.
The government has ordered all units to lock down arms stores and audit ammunition within seven days. Facebook, meanwhile, has removed the shooter’s account and promised faster co-operation when users broadcast violence. Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the state would cover medical bills for the injured and provide 300,000 baht in compensation to the families of the dead.
The mall remains cordoned off while forensic teams comb four floors for bullet casings and DNA evidence. Workers laid bouquets at the barricades on Monday morning, and digital billboards across Bangkok flashed black ribbons in solidarity. A city famous for its night markets and military bases now faces the harder task of explaining how one of its own soldiers turned downtown into a battlefield.
