A 14-year-old Thai student shot and killed his grandparents at dawn on Friday in their two-storey house on the outskirts of Bangkok according to Thai police. Police Colonel Thadsakorn Konthong, superintendent of the Bang Bua Thong Police Station, stated that the grandparents were each killed by a single gunshot to the head at around 5 a.m. local time. The firearm and bullets used in the attack belonged to the teenager’s grandfather.
Morning Killings Precede School Rampage
Following the killings at the home near rice fields, the teenager boarded the school van that came to fetch him, carrying the weapon and dozens of bullets with him. The Debsirin Nonthaburi School is located around 18 km, or a 45-minute drive, from the house. In the yard of the family home, a red and white Nazi flag was found, which police stated belonged to the teenager’s uncle. The whereabouts of the boy’s parents remain unclear.
School Attack Leaves Eight Dead
By noon on Friday, bodies lay strewn at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School after the 14-year-old opened fire, killing five more people at the facility and wounding 23 others before turning the gun on himself as reported by the New York Post. Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong confirmed that both teachers and students were among the dead.
During the rampage, the gunman walked down a corridor and shot at students before walking down the stairs, where he encountered the school’s deputy director and the director’s secretary heading up to check on the situation, according to accounts shared by Dejrapee. The attacker shot and killed both on the staircase. Emergency workers subsequently found a male teacher lying dead on an upper floor and a female teacher with wounds to her chest and arm in another room. In total, the shooter used at least 26 bullets, with another 34 rounds found in his possession.
After seeing police arrive, the teenager fled into a four-storey structure. Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith stated that his team heard a final shot and rushed up to find the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head. Finding that the 14-year-old still had a pulse, medical personnel performed CPR and rushed him to the hospital, where he died soon after.
Motive and Background Amid Gun Regulations
Authorities described the 14-year-old as quiet, not very sociable, and fairly good academically. Alongside his weekday studies, he attended weekend tutoring classes and enjoyed playing shooting games until midnight. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul visited the school and told reporters that the boy was stressed from his studies,
adding that his actions were deliberate and planned. Anutin noted that after the Songkran festival in April, the teenager had posted a picture of his grandfather’s gun, indicating the weapon had a permit.
Friday’s massacre marked Thailand’s worst mass shooting since 2022 and the second school shooting in the country for the year, following an incident in the south in February where a teacher died and a student was injured. District authorities noted that the Debsirin Nonthaburi School had an enrollment of around 3,100 students taught by 147 teachers during the 2025 academic year. The tragedy has renewed scrutiny of gun regulations in Thailand, which possesses an estimated 10.3 million civilian firearms—equating to roughly 15 guns per 100 residents.
