One survivor of the Siam Paragon shopping mall shooting attack recalled the moment when she faced the 14-year-old shooter while running up an escalator.

She thought she was fleeing to a safe place. Instead, she saw the boy standing on the other end of the escalator. He turned toward her and promptly fired his gun.

Anyapat Thipjirasakul recalled: "When I saw him, I quickly turned back and ran down the escalator as fast as I could. I heard about four shots. One bullet hit me. I felt pain in my left shoulder but I could not stop.

"I jumped down the escalator. I fell but had to keep running, as I was afraid he would follow me down." She ran toward the entrance gate among the crowd, some of whom were screaming and crying.

"It was horrific. I barely slept during my first night. Whenever I close my eyes, I see him and hear the sound of the gun," she said from a hospital.

Anyapat is among the seven people who were shot by the teenager in the afternoon of Oct 3. About 40 bullet shells were found later, mostly scattered on the second and third floors, by Scientific Crime Detection Division police.

Penpiwan Mitthampitak, 30, another survivor, is in a critical condition. She was shot in the head and twice more in the right chest.

Chinese national Li Sha, 30, had two gunshot wounds to her chest, one to her back and another to her right arm. Her condition is stable.

Laotian national Kham Phiou, 28, was shot in her shoulder. She is under close monitoring by a doctor as the right part of her body is weak and can hardly move.

Thai national Wichen Vijikhaki, 41, was shot in the back. He is now safe. Two victims who died were Chinese national Zhao Jinnan, 34. She died at the scene while Myanmar national Moe Myint died later at hospital.

About 3.15pm on Oct 3, CCTV images show the long-hair boy, wearing a cap, a black hoodie jacket, khaki military pants and black boots, walking with a backpack from his condo to the BTS Skytrain.

He took the train and entered the mall at 3.35pm. He went to a restroom on the M floor, took off his jacket and left his bag on a toilet lid. At 4.10pm, he embarked on his shooting rampage, first hitting Ms Kham, a cleaner who was working inside the male restroom.

A witness said she heard gunshots from the restroom but did not dare to go out while many shoppers squeezed inside the female restroom, hiding for their lives.

She said it was fortunate the shooter walked past the women's restroom. He started walking from one floor to another. He even took a break to check out Twitter and clicked "like" on news about his crime.

Source:
courtesy of BANGKOK POST

by Karnjana Karnjanatawe

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