BANGKOK: Thai police arrested a 14-year-old suspect on October 3 after a shooting left two dead at Bangkok’s Siam Paragon mall. He is currently being held on five charges, including murder.

According to National Police Chief Torsak Sukvimol, two women from China and Myanmar were killed, while five others were injured in the attack. He added that the teenager was in custody, but unfit for questioning upon arrest. "He is a mental patient at Rajavithi Hospital and he has not been taking his medication," Torsak said. After interviewing the suspect the next day, Torsak said, "The suspect had a breakdown psychologically and it fits an active shooter profile.”

The incident was first reported on social media as shoppers hid or fled from gunshots in the late afternoon at one of Bangkok’s top shopping destinations. Police apprehended the suspect around 5pm. He was wearing a baseball cap with the American flag emblazoned on the front, a symbol of a country that has experienced around 500 mass shooting in the first nine months of 2023. Thailand has high rates of gun ownership and while gun deaths are not uncommon, mass shootings are. Thailand has the highest percentage of gun ownership in ASEAN and the second highest in Asia after Pakistan.

In 2020, a former army officer went on a rampage in a shopping mall in Korat, killing 29 people and wounding 58 others.

Tuesday’s shooting comes just days before the one-year anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in recent Thai history, when a former police officer armed with a knife and gun attacked a nursery, murdering 24 children and 12 adults.

On Wednesday, Maj Gen Nakharin Sukhonthawit said the boy is being charged with premeditated murder, attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, illegally carrying a weapon and firing shots in a public place. Investigators were also considering whether his parents should be charged under the Child Protection Act.