Emotional Student Who Witnessed Teachers Gunned Down by14-Yr-Old Boy Opens Up on Final Moments
- A 14-year-old boy opened fire at Debsirin School in Nonthaburi, outside Bangkok, on a Friday morning
- The shooter moved from classroom to classroom, and witnesses say he also killed his grandparents before the attack
- Thailand's Prime Minister pointed to study pressure as a possible factor, while opposition leaders renewed calls for gun control reform
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A 14-year-old student shot and killed five teachers and wounded more than 30 others at Debsirin School in Nonthaburi, just outside Bangkok, on Friday morning, August 7, sending hundreds of panicked pupils fleeing the campus as lessons were under way.
Police said the boy used a 9mm handgun believed to belong to his grandfather, whom he had already shot dead alongside his grandmother before arriving at the school.
Source: Getty Images
Forensic officers noted that his aim was precise, with multiple shots hitting vital areas on his victims. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the attack.
A seventh-grade girl who was present in her classroom when the shooting started described the moment a teacher was shot in front of her.
As reported by BBC she had to climb over the school fence to get out.
Her mother said the girl believed she would not survive.
"I thought I'd never see you again," the girl reportedly told her mother afterwards.
An 18-year-old student said he initially mistook the gunfire for firecrackers.
"There were many shots: bang bang bang. Then it went quiet. Then it started again," as reported by Reuters.
Rescue worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, said he rushed to the scene after learning children as young as 12 had been hurt.
He told Reuters he found students with gunshot wounds to the arm, back, and chest before helping transport them to hospital.
School shooting revives gun control debate
Police have not yet confirmed a motive, but Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul suggested academic stress may have been a contributing factor.
He said the boy's grandmother, who was a teacher, may have placed considerable pressure on him, and that a close friend of the shooter confirmed he had been struggling emotionally.
A teacher at the school described the boy as a well-behaved student with good grades, while education authorities said he was a keen gamer.
The attack is the deadliest school shooting Thailand has seen in years and the second at a school in 2026 alone.
In February, an 18-year-old gunman shot a head teacher and a female student during a siege at a school in the country's south. In 2022, a 34-year-old killed 37 people, most of them young children, in a shooting and stabbing at a nursery in Nong Bua Lamphu province.
More than seven million people in Thailand are estimated to own firearms, one of the highest rates in the world, with over one million of those owners unlicensed. Porous land borders, corruption, and weak regulation have made illegal weapons relatively easy to obtain.
Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, leader of the opposition People's Party, called for urgent and systematic reform.
"An act of violence in an educational institution, which should be one of the safest places in our society, serves as a stark reminder for Thai society to seriously and systematically review gun control measures," he wrote on Facebook.
Gunman opens fire near Trump's White House
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the death of a man who opened fire near a White House security checkpoint. It was the third incident of gunfire in the vicinity of President Donald Trump in the past month.
The man was in the area of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue when he “pulled a weapon from his bag" and began firing. Secret Service officers returned fire and hit the suspect, who died at a hospital, the agency said.
Source: Legit.ng
