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Grieving relatives of 29 people murdered by a rogue soldier in Thailand held Buddhist prayer ceremonies Monday, as questions multiply over how and why the unprecedented shooting spree happened.<\/p>\n
Holding portraits of their relatives and dabbing away tears, families of the victims arrived at a city morgue in Nakhon Ratchasima, better known as Korat, to carry home coffins bearing their dead.<\/p>\n
The killer started his rampage on Saturday afternoon with weapons stolen from a barracks’ arsenal, where he gunned down Mehta Lertsiri, 22, who was guarding the depot.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know what to do next,” Mehta’s grief-stricken grandfather, Udom Prapotsang, said outside of the morgue waiting to claim his body.<\/p>\n
“His four-year-old son keeps asking why he can’t call his dad. I will remember to tell him fond stories about his dad.”<\/p>\n
Flowers and messages of condolences mounted outside the bullet-riddled mall where a terrifying siege unfolded Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The killer, armed with automatic weapons, held out for 17 hours as hundreds of shoppers cowered in toilets, storerooms and under tables.<\/p>\n
“R.I.P. Korat, we will not forget,” said one of the condolence messages left in a growing tribute outside the Terminal 21 mall in the northeastern city.<\/p>\n
The gunman — Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma — was shot dead by a commando unit Sunday morning, ending a rampage that left 29 dead and scores more wounded.<\/p>\n
A Buddhist monk in orange robes led a prayer ceremony on a grass verge outside the mall for Peeraphat Palasan, who was shot dead as the gunman sprayed bullets into traffic, killing the 25-year-old engineer and causing his car to crash.<\/p>\n
His father, Witoon, was among a dozen mourners crying, kneeling, hands clasped — some holding incense sticks — in prayer.<\/p>\n
“My son had just finished work and came here to go shopping,” Witoon said. “I never thought I would lose him so soon.”<\/p>\n
Lucky survivors have recounted hiding across the mall, keeping up to speed with the gunman’s movements through friends on the outside and snippets of CCTV footage shared over messaging groups.<\/p>\n
As Korat — and the country — mourned, there were growing questions about why the gunman went on a killing spree over an apparent private debt to a senior officer and how he was able to steal weapons, including an M60 machine gun, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.<\/p>\n
Divisive Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha was hammered on social media for a tone-deaf response to the crisis during a visit to the city on Sunday where he posed for selfies, high-fived a crowd and smiled before shutting down questions from the media at a press conference.<\/p>\n
“There should be no smiles, joking around and touching hands like people are your fan club,” popular blogger Sorakon Adulyanon, aka Noom Muang Chan, said on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Others drew unfavourable comparisons with the dignified response of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to the Christchurch mass shooting last year.<\/p>\n
As criticism snowballed, the gruff former army chief Prayut was prodded into a rare act of contrition late Sunday.<\/p>\n
“We are all saddened by what happened,” he said on his official Facebook page.<\/p>\n
“I intended to offer my moral support… my expression may have been misunderstood or made many people uncomfortable.”<\/p>\n
burs-apj\/amj<\/p>\n<\/div>\n