Gunman in Korat

[Big Boy]

I've been onto the page of BaaBin to see if the video that impressed me so much had been saved. Unfortunately it was not. The pure fear in the driver's eyes summed up this episode 100% for me. Then the way the paramedics cleaned the blood as the ambulance rushed back to the scene for another go - incredible.

[PeteC]

I can only get this on a Facebook feed at present. Sufficient to say if everything hit him, he was dead 10 times over.





https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=259281055038166

[Nereus]

I still can't get that ambulance crew out of my mind. The bravest thing I have ever seen. Under fire, no flak vests etc, they dashed into the centre of the road to rescue a wounded motorcyclist. They got the patient back to the ambulance, and the driver who had his phone in his pocket doing the live feed, placed the phone onto the dash. The fear in his eyes as he drove off was so real. As he was driving, you could see the 2 paramedics doing chest compressions etc.

They delivered the patient to the hospital, and drove straight back to the scene. Paramedics cleaning the blood en-route.

Such a brave trio. I feel honoured to have witnessed their heroics. I'll bet it won't make it onto the news. 3 true unsung heroes. Well done guys - incredible bravery on such a sad day.

Sorry, I cannot agree with you here. It may be brave to run out into the road to retrieve an injured person, but it is also very stupid. Just as driving like a maniac to the hospital is also very stupid. They were not only risking their own lives, but an untold number of others, both at the scene and driving to the hospital. Crash the ambulance and you have more "victims". To me it reflects a sad lack of training, like many other things here!

[sateeb]

Well there you have it, the Oracle has spoken. I'm with BB on this one.

[Big Boy]

Sorry, I cannot agree with you here.

We'll have to agree to disagree. For me it was incredible. The look of fear in the driver's eyes will remain with me for a very long time. Crazy or not, if I ever need help, I'd opt for those 3 heroes every time.

[handdrummer]

Early in the killers facebook broadcasting, he said the first 2 killings were revenge for cheating him out of money on a land purchase. After that he seems to have gone berserk. If his statement was true, than the powers that be certainly didn't want him taken alive and speaking in court and he didn't want to be taken alive and go through what he would have been put through.

[PeteC]

All this seems to have started in earnest long before he got to the mall.

Gunman's carnage shatters temple peace on holy day

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... n-holy-day

....."When the first round of shots was fired, everyone thought it was one of those firecrackers going off," Ms Amornrat, clad in white robes, recalled on Sunday.

Instead, a Thai soldier fleeing his military base after killing a guard and his commanding officer was gunning people down in the early stages of an 18-hour shooting spree in which he would kill 29 people.

"Anybody, any vehicle within his eyesight, he'd shoot them all," Ms Amornrat said............

[HHTel]

I understand that ThaiPbs reported 31 dead with over 50 injured. That was this morning.

[Spitfire]

It appears the soldier was initially scammed by his colonel at the base regarding a housing/property deal and the colonel and his mates failed to pay him his due (hence the Facebook posts about "can you spend your money in hell" etc.) and locked him up in base jail for a bit and then they all had a meeting and he popped the colonel and a few at the base due to what the result of the meeting was, stole the Humvee and weapons and then went to a temple on the way to Terminal 21. What exactly transpired at the temple other than more casualties remains unclear and what drove him to go completely nuts at the shopping mall too isn't clear. There also seems to be subterfuge about letting the real facts emerge as it obviously won't show the army in a good light and the natural battle for the narrative is ongoing.

Personally, I'm surprised that he was allowed to get off base so easy and commit more violence at a temple and then it's a 25 minute drive at least to the Terminal 21 mall and the alarm should have been raised long before it was when he stepped out of the Humvee and started shooting at the mall. The opaqueness of the authorities/army etc. knows no bounds and I think they thought they could initially keep it "in house" until it went far too far. There should be a real investigation of all of this, but don't hold your breath as the news cycle quickly moves on these days and seems the airbrushing of the story/facts is already in overdrive.

Edit - Typos

[PET]

I just wonder why it took so many hours to take this killer out? Special forces!!

[caller]

Personally, I'm surprised that he was allowed to get off base so easy and commit more violence at a temple and then it's a 25 minute drive at least to the Terminal 21 mall and the alarm should have been raised long before it was when he stepped out of the Humvee and started shooting at the mall.

I have to say this was the bit that got me. At first I assumed he was based at the large army base just south of Yamo, the one with the race track, golf course et al, which is much nearer to T21, but when I saw he was just south of Wing 1, then, as you say, that's a fair old trek to T21 and he would have been held up at lights and junctions. The Mall would have been a quicker option.

[Spitfire]

@Caller, I think the temple he went nuts at took him east of his base and then after that he went to the road that brings you into the city from the immigration center, past the Hermitage Hotel and on to that junction that takes you on to The Mall or you can swing right to the T21 on the Khon Kaen road ... even so, there are multiple traffic light to go through so easily a 25 minute drive too. I think that's why he chose T21, as if he had gone on from there he would have had to go through more lights and a u-turn to get to The Mall. So, I think T21 was just the easy option to go to after the temple situation ... why he went to that temple first though eludes me and guess we won't know.

[caller]

@Caller, I think the temple he went nuts at took him east of his base and then after that he went to the road that brings you into the city from the immigration center, past the Hermitage Hotel and on to that junction that takes you on to The Mall or you can swing right to the T21 on the Khon Kaen road ... even so, there are multiple traffic light to go through so easily a 25 minute drive too. I think that's why he chose T21, as if he had gone on from there he would have had to go through more lights and a u-turn to get to The Mall. So, I think T21 was just the easy option to go to after the temple situation ... why he went to that temple first though eludes me and guess we won't know.

Okay, got you now. I know that route as I used to live in Hua Thalay, off the road where Tesco's is on the corner. That's where the lights really start. Just taking the known cut throughs, it would take me 30 minutes to The Mall, so if following the main road around the 'moats' he would have to have gone through 7/8 sets of lights before getting to T21 and as you say, the first mall on his route.