PATTANI: Police have arrested a gunman who shot dead a 14-year-old girl in full view of her mother in front of a mosque in Muang district of this southern province on Friday morning.
Mayusor Saha was arrested at a house in Yarang district around 10.45am. Seized from him was a .38 gun and the vehicle used during the shooting.
A source familiar with the case said the suspect suffered from mental illness. In earlier incidents, he damaged a television at a local tea shop, as well as an ATM, and assaulted an elderly man in tambon Puyud. He had not been seen in the area for a long time before the incident on Friday.
The body of Takwa Ngernsongsri, a Mathayom Suksa 2 (Grade 8) student at Watthana Witthaya Foundation school, was returned to her house in tambon Puyud for religious rites on Friday afternoon. Grieving friends gathered in front of the girl’s house.
Takwa was shot in front of the Darulanadwa Tul Isalameeyah mosque at Surakalee village Moo 6, said Pol Col Jeffrey Saimankul, chief of Muang district police, who was alerted at around 8.30am.
Police rushing to the scene found bloodstains on a marble bench in front of the mosque and a spent bullet.
The girl was seriously wounded and rushed to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
Police said the girl was talking with her mother while waiting for her father who was inside the mosque. Suddenly, a Toyota Sport Rider with Pattani licence plates and an unknown number of people onboard drove past them, and two shots were fired from the vehicle. One bullet hit the girl in the chest in full view of her mother, as the vehicle sped off.
Pol Col Jeffrey said officers believed the girl might not have been the target of the attack, but the bullets missed the target and one hit her.
