The grieving mother of a teenager killed in a violent attack on a Buri Ram school said Wednesday the youth was lured into the incident that took his life.
The youth was shot dead by a school guard when he was confronted by a dozen teen-agers, masked and wielding machetes while trying to break into Buri Ram Nursing School during an orientation ceremony.
Parents sit at their son's funeral in Nakhon Ratchasima province. (Photo by Prasit Tangprasert)
The mother of the dead youth, who lives in Nakhon Ratchasima, said her son went to Buri Ram with the promise of a part-time job.
The woman, who asked not to be identified in the media, said she was seeking justice for her son, a "nice boy who had never been in trouble before". The dead youth was the second of three children, and had just finished Matthayom 5 (grade 11).
In an incident that would lead to his death, the mother said, the youth was looking for a part-time job during school summer holiday to earn money for his parents.
While travelling on a train from Nakhon Ratchasima to Buri Ram, he telephoned his girlfriend and told her that "someone" had hired him to distribute leaflets there and would pay him 1,000 baht.
The boy's friend, injured in the same incident, insisted an unidentified person told him he wanted to hire him and other teens to give away leaflets in Buri Ram, and would be paid an impressive 1,000 baht a day.
But when the group arrived at Buri Ram, they found the job agent and his henchmen had prepared black silk masks and machetes. The men threatened to beat the boys if they did not raid the school for them, she said.
The mother said her son was caught on closed-circuit television (CCTV) standing about 10 metres from other machete-wielding teens who already were close to the pupils at the raided school, and that he only had a knife while the security guard had a gun.
The shooting of her son was unreasonable use of force, she said, appealing to society to look at the incident and give justice to her son.
The boy's father, who also asked not to be named, said he wanted the man who shot his son to be held accountable. "A dead man cannot defend himself," he said, asking that society not cast all guilt upon his son.
A dozen machete-wielding teens, mostly aged 15-16, raided the nursing school and tried to assault the principal in broad daylight on Monday. They were intercepted by the armed security guard who killed one boy and wounded two others.
The attackers, masked and carrying machetes, arrived in two pickups, and ran into the school to try to attack Watcharapon Thongsiri, the school's principal, who fled and hid in a building.
When the group continued to search for him, Kwanfah Srinarak, 29, a guard and Mr Watcharapon's driver who carries a 9mm pistol, fired about a dozen shots at the intruders, who fled the scene on the trucks.
Police later found one of the trucks parked outside a local hospital with five suspects in it, three of them wounded.
One of the injured, who was aged 17, succumbed to his wounds after being shot in the chest, police said.
Mr Watcharapon told police a rival school which offers similar practical nursing programmes was likely behind the attack. The principal was attacked by two men wearing helmets and armed with machetes on the school's premises last July. He was slashed in the face and requied more than 100 stitches.