Standout coverage of mass shooting at rural Thailand day care center
Parents of a child killed three days earlier in a mass shooting at a day care center grieve as personnel change the child’s clothes in a coffin at Wat Rat Samakee temple in the rural town of Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand, Oct. 9, 2022. A former police officer burst into a day care center Oct. 6, killing dozens of people — preschoolers and teachers — before shooting more people as he fled. (AP Photo / Wason Wanichakorn)
By Grant Peck, Elaine Kurtenbach, Wason Wanichakorn, Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul, Kaweewit Kaewjinda, Sakchai Lalitkanjanakul, Wally Santana, Jerry Harmer, Kristen Gelineau, Tong-hyung Kim, David Rising, Wang Penny, Tassanee Vejpongsa, Kiko Rosario and Tian Ji
AP’s Bangkok-based journalists, coordinating with a cast of colleagues from Southeast Asia to Australia to London, delivered unmatched agency coverage, impressive for its speed and scope after Thailand’s deadliest mass shooting — 36 people dead at a day care center,most of them children. The ex-police officer responsible also killed his wife and child, and then killed himself.
First responders treat a victim at the site of a mass shooting at a day care center in Thailand’s northeastern province of Nongbua Lamphu, Oct. 6, 2022. A former policeman facing a drug charge burst into the day care center, killing dozens people — preschoolers and teachers — in the deadliest rampage in Thailand’s history. The man also killed his wife and child before killing himself. – Mungkorn Sriboonreung Rescue Group via AP
On Oct. 7, 2022, relatives of victims cry outside the day care center that was attacked by a lone assailant one day earlier in the rural town of Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand. – AP Photo / Sakchai Lalit
A day care center sits empty, Oct. 7, 2022, one day after it was attacked by a lone gunman in the rural town of Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand. – AP Photo / Sakchai Lalit
Tukta Wongsila grieves with her father, Saart, Oct. 7, 2022. while holding a picture of her daughter Siriprapa “Plai Fon” Prasertsuk, 4, one of the victims of a mass shooting one day earlier at a day care center in the rural town of Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand. – AP Photo / Sakchai Lalit
Paweenuch Supolwong, 3, the only child to emerge unscathed from the Oct. 6 mass shooting at a local day care center, is held by her mother, Anonpai Srithong, as they view a victim’s portrait inside Wat Rat Samakee temple in Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand, Oct. 8, 2022. – AP Photo / Wason Wanichakorn
Paweenuch Supolwong, 3, the only child to emerge unscathed from the Oct. 6 mass shooting at a local day care center, has holy threads tied to her wrists by relatives of the shooting victims, inside Wat Rat Samakee temple in Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand, Oct. 8, 2022. – AP Photo / Wason Wanichakorn
Photos of young victims of the Oct. 6 mass shooting at a local day care center are displayed inside the Wat Rat Samakee temple in the rural town of Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand, Oct. 9, 2022. – AP Photo / Sakchai Lalit
A woman lights incense, Oct. 9, 2022, at the Wat Rat Samakee temple in Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand, for victims of the Oct. 6 mass shooting at a local day care center. – AP Photo / Wason Wanichakorn
Volunteers prepare a coffin containing a victim of the Oct. 6 day care center mass shooting for cremation at Wat Rat Samakee temple in Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand, Oct. 11, 2022. – AP Photo / Wason Wanichakorn
Funeral pyres burn at Wat Rat Samakee temple in Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand, Oct. 11, 2022, during cremation of victims of the Oct. 6 mass shooting at a local day care center. – AP Photo / Wason Wanichakorn
As an all formats team headed by air to Uthai Sawan,a small village in one of the country’s poorest and most remote areas,AP was quick to secure user-generated content from sources there,sending out nearly a dozen videos the first day,in addition to text updates and photos. Coverage continued with the arrival of staffers and freelancers on the ground,and included live video, stories of the town in mourning, the lone child to survive the shooting unscathed,and the wrenching, sensitively told story of a family that lost a 4-year-old daughter.
