Police are making progress in their bid to identify the gunman who killed a teacher, an innocent bystander, after opening fire at a brilliant freshman at a technology college on Saturday morning.
Pol Col Withawat Chinkham, acting commander of the Metropolitan Police Division 5, said on Sunday that detectives had made a certain degree of progress in their attempt to identify the gunman who attacked a freshman at Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-Ok, Uthenthawai Campus.
The gunman covered himself with a long-sleeved shirt and full-face helmet, he said, and arrived at the scene on the back of a motorcycle.
The freshman was identified as Thanasorn Hongsawat, 19. He was seriously injured and admitted to King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.
Pol Col Withawat said detectives from the Metropolitan Police Bureau, Metropolitan Police Division 5 and the Thung Mahamek police station were mobilised for the investigation.
Detectives tracked the escape of the gunman and expected to identtify him in the near future, Pol Col Withawat said.
Police had not ruled out any possible motivation for the crime but were focusing on rivalry between different campuses, he said.
The dead student was not personally involved in the conflict because he was a freshman, the commander said.
In the shooting incident, the first shot missed the male victim but struck the head of a teacher who was about to use an ATM at a TMBThanachart Bank (TTB) branch on Sunthornkosa Road.
Sirada Sinprasert, the 45-year-old teacher, taught computer science at nearby Sacred Heart Convent School. Her family was to organise funeral rites in her native province of Suphan Buri.
The management of the school and the government expressed their deepest sorrow over the loss of the education professional.
The mother of the seriously injured student, Pornpimol, came from Samut Sakhorn to see her son. She said he was in critical condition and was about to undergo his third operation as a neck wound continuously bled and a bullet was buried in his leg.
She said the son was her eldest child and enrolled in the campus due to his excellent educational records.
Before the incident, the mother said, her son told her he had no classes at the campus on Saturday but would build decorations for a graduation ceremony for senior students.
The son had no conflicts and studied hard, she said. The family had pinned high hope on him.
She said she did not know when longstanding violence against technology students would end and she was praying for the miraculous recovery of her son.