Racial hatred rears its ugly head in Bangkok..

[..]

SCHOOL HORROR: Four girls hurt, one critical, in stabbing at prestigious St Joseph?s. Police launch frantic hunt for 31-yr-old woman

 

Published on September 10, 2005

 

A knife-wielding woman stabbed and seriously injured four students at a well-known convent school in the heart of Bangkok yesterday, in a case of unprovoked school assault that police suspect could be the work of a mentally ill person.

 

The attacker, whom witnesses described as a lean woman in her late twenties or early thirties, walked into a classroom of the Saint Joseph Convent School in the Silom area just before morning classes started, and randomly stabbed students within her reach with fruit knives before making an easy escape from the school.

 

The assault, the first known case of an unprovoked school attack in Thailand after several other similar incidents earlier reported in countries such as China and Japan, sent a shock wave through the public and prompted an outcry for better school security.

 

Last night, police named the suspect as Jitrada Tantiwanichayasuk, 31, and were frantically hunting for her.

 

The victims, aged between 12 and 14 years old, remained hospitalised as of last night. Among the three seriously injured victims, one was in critical condition.

 

?We will urgently bring the attacker to justice,? said Lt-General Pansiri Prapawat, the Metropolitan Police commissioner. He said the attacker would face charges of attempted murder.

 

He has assigned Metropolitan Police Division 5 deputy commander, Colonel Chan Choonhawong, to head up the investigation.

 

Jitrada was reportedly living with her aunt in Bangkok?s Tha Phra area while her mother, Thanyaporn Tantiwanichayakul, lives in Nakhon Pathom.

 

Thanyaporn said her daughter had sought mental treatment from various healthcare providers. ?But she has never hurt anyone,? she insisted.

 

The vicious stabbing happened shortly after 7am just as parents were dropping their children off for class and many students were exercising and dancing on the open-air ground floor of a school building.

 

?I was watching the students dancing when I saw a physical-education teacher carrying a blood-soaked student in his arms and rushed her into a school van. Shortly thereafter, another teacher came along carrying another injured student. I knew then that there must be something wrong,? said Suksan Jittimaneerat, 40, a Public Health Ministry official, who was at the school to see his first-grade daughter off to class.

 

The scene soon became chaotic as teachers called on their students to go inside their classrooms and parents were ushered out of the school compound. Some parents were so shocked that they fainted. Many others frantically tried to contact their children via cell phones.

 

Convent Road, where the school is located, was quickly closed to traffic as police officers, reporters and many parents, who later heard of the attack, flocked to the school. The road is off Silom Road in downtown Bangkok.

 

After police arrived, an hour after the attack, the school locked the students in the classrooms. Police officers and male teachers scoured the compound to check whether the attacker was still inside.

 

Prapai Makhumlek, a motorcycle taxi driver who had been waiting for customers on Convent Road yesterday morning, later told police that a woman had hurriedly walked up to him and hired him to drive her to a bus stop near Saphan Luang.

 

His description of her physical appearance matched others made by witnesses at the school.

 

?She told me to hurry. Initially she said she wanted to go to Ploenchit, but she changed her mind while on the way. Finally, I dropped her off at a bus stop near Saphan Luang,? he said.

 

The taxi driver said the woman, who he believed was about 30 years old, asked him to help her open a roadside garbage bin and she threw something inside. When police checked the bin, they found a two-inch-long fruit knife wrapped in a piece of cloth.

 

Three other bloodstained knives were found in the school compound.

 

At 10am, the school started checking parents? identification cards before allowing them to pick up their children. The students were required to stay in their classrooms until their parents came. All classes were suspended for the day.

 

Deputy Public Health Minister Anutin Charnveerakul, Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang and Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin came to supervise.

 

Saint Joseph Convent School - a girls-only school - is a prestigious institution and most students are from rich families.

 

All of the injured students were rushed to Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital, located just 50 metres from the school.

 

Chayamon Trailertsamut, 14, sustained four knife wounds in her left arm and chest. Chamanat Arif, 12, needed an operation as the knife had cut into her liver and kidney. Jinjutha Rerksirinukool, 13, also needed an operation as the knife had pierced her intestine.

 

Apisatha Boonnam, 14, was most seriously injured. She was stabbed in the left shoulder, back and chest, puncturing her lung. She remained in critical condition last night.

 

Photos here: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/specials/shoolattack/p13.html

 

++++++++++++

 

Woman held for school knife attacks

 

St Joseph's Convent to tighten security

 

By Manop Thip-osod

 

Jitrlada Tantiwanitchasuk, 36, has been charged with attempted murder for a knife attack at St Joseph's Convent School on Friday.

 

 

Police yesterday arrested a suspected woman stalker who allegedly stabbed and wounded four students at St Joseph's Convent School on Friday.

 

Police said the 36-year-old woman, identified as Jitrlada Tantiwanitchasuk, admitted attacking the girls. Showing no remorse, she said she wanted to be executed by lethal injection.

 

Police said the woman, a native of Nakhon Pathom province, has a record of mental problems and they would send her for a mental check-up after questioning.

 

Police arrested Ms Jitrlada after getting a tip-off from two waiters working at a restaurant in the Chatuchak area where the woman applied for a job as a waitress yesterday.

 

Police released a sketch of the suspect after the attack. The waiters said Ms Jitrlada looked like the suspect in the sketch.

 

Pol Lt-Gen Parnsiri Prapawat, metropolitan police commissioner, said Ms Jitrlada said she bought three knives from the Wang Burapha area, went to the school on Friday morning and stabbed the girls and fled.

 

Ms Jitrlada graduated from a commercial college near the Victory Monument and was a car saleswoman before resigning due to mental problems. She was admitted to Niti Jittavej psychiatric hospital about 10 years ago and had to report to doctors there monthly before moving to Phra Mongkutklao and Somdej Chao Phraya hospitals.

 

The woman, who frequented first-class hotels and shopping malls, left home on June 11, withdrew 500,000 baht from her bank account, and later called her mother to say she would come back in October.

 

She had no connection with St Joseph's Convent School and her medical record at BNH Hospital was not related to mental problems.

 

A police source quoted Ms Jitrlada as telling investigators that she committed the crime because she abhorred the rich and believed killing people of Chinese and Indian origin would pave her way to heaven. (yet she had at least half million baht in the bank: not exactly poor? -- Tiger)

 

Police believe she stalked schoolgirls out of hatred, not affection.

 

Pol Maj-Gen Krisda Phankhongchuen, deputy metropolitan police chief, said many tip-offs and a realistic sketch of the suspect allowed police to track down the woman from the household registration list.

 

Ms Jitrlada showed no sign of anxiety when police approached her and confessed to committing the crime after being questioned for five minutes.

 

Sutthi Wongkallaya, owner of Krua Ta Noi northeastern restaurant, said a relative brought Ms Jitrlada to apply for the job without knowing she was the suspect, because she had changed her hairstyle.

 

The suspect's stepfather, Phadung Chusak, 71, said Ms Jitrlada was the second child of a farmer family and developed mental problems after her father's death.

 

Meanwhile, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said St Joseph's Convent School had agreed to tighten its security.

 

Khunying Sudarat, who spoke in her capacity as adviser to the school alumni association, said parents of the students would be issued with a pass to enter the school.

 

++++++++++

 

Girl still in critical condition

 

By Manop Thip-osod

 

Apistha Boonnam, 14, one of four girls wounded when a woman stormed St Joseph's Convent School and stabbed students with a knife, is still in critical condition.

 

BNH Hospital director Krittavit Lertutsahakul said Apistha is under close observation in the intensive care unit.

 

The girl, who suffered massive internal bleeding caused by penetration of the lungs, is on a breathing aid.

 

"I cannot say if her condition will improve. We have to watch out for possible complications in the next 72 hours because she suffered massive internal bleeding.

 

"She can communicate with us by writing and does not show signs of shock," said the hospital director.

 

The condition of Chommanas Arif, 12, wounded in the left shoulder and right hip, is improving.

 

Jinjutha Rerksirinukul, 13, who sustained a deep cut in the abdomen, and Chayamon Trailertsamut, 14, who sustained scrape wounds on her face, arm and thigh, are safe.

 

Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenrattanakul said the Mental Health Department would send a team of psychiatrists to the school tomorrow.

 

He said the team would keep an eye out for post-traumatic stress disorder among students.

 

++++++++++++

 

Kudos to the Bangkok Metro Police and the alert citizens of Bangkok. They did a hellofa job!

 

Regards,

SD

[elef]

I think I read yesterday she was arrested after threatening a restaurant owner. Do you notice she was 31 in the first report and 36 in the second. Also read somewhere that she has been a mental hospital patient for years.

[Straycat]

Thanks for the report, Sua!

[Guest]

I fail to see how that case has anything whatsoever to do with "racial hatred" in your thread title. This is just a case of a woman with a history of mental poblems running amok.

WTF?

[..]

Perhaps you cannot read her reason:

 

"A police source quoted Ms Jitrlada as telling investigators that she committed the crime because she abhorred the rich and believed killing people of Chinese and Indian origin would pave her way to heaven."

 

Can it be much clearer? Sheesh.

[Khun_Kong]

sourkraut said:

I fail to see how that case has anything whatsoever to do with "racial hatred" in your thread title. This is just a case of a woman with a history of mental poblems running amok.

WTF?

 

Maybe this?:

 

"...she abhorred the rich and believed killing people of Chinese and Indian origin would pave her way to heaven. ..."

[Guest lazyphil]

I knew about this a few days ago, nearly posted as my Mrs read this on a Thai new website (reason I didn't post it LoL!) somedays ago, shes hogging my bloody puter alot these days ::

[Flashermac]

<< Can it be much clearer? Sheesh. >>

 

 

Yeah. Could be a hell of a lot clearer. What RACES are involved here? I suppose the Indians might have been "dark Caucasian", but Chinese and Thais are the same race.

 

Also, the attacker -- both from her own name and appearance -- seems to be Chinese herself. (Or since she's from Nakorn Pathom, perhaps Mon.)

[Guest]

suadum said:

 

 

Can it be much clearer? Sheesh.

 

 

 

Now that is how cheap rags construct their headlines to attract readers - look for some way to blow an incident out of proportion.

 

I don't want to argue about definitions, but i would say that the far more suitable thread title would be along the lines the Thai media has presented the case from day one, namely that a headcase went bonkers.

The next nutter may say that he was told by alians to stab someone. Are you gonna make then a post saying that an imminent alien invasion threatens earth?

[Guest lazyphil]

<<I don't want to argue>>

 

I'm going to frame this and hang on my wall ::