After fatal Thai mall shooting last year, police chief pushes for lower age of criminal responsibility
- After a 14-year-old boy killed three people last year, the police chief is eyeing a lower age of criminal responsibility from the current 15 years to 12
- His proposal also stemmed from the fact that ‘criminals are getting younger’, and that more juveniles were involved in crimes
Currently, criminal suspects under the age of 15 can only be reprimanded and then released. Police chief Torsak Sukvimol said he would consult relevant stakeholders to reduce that threshold to 12 years to prevent young offenders from going scot-free.
The attorney general’s office on Monday ordered the teenager to be sent to a government-run psychiatric institution, citing the prosecutor’s failure to present a watertight case for an indictment.
The October 3 shooting rampage at the Siam Paragon shopping centre, a luxury entertainment venue popular with tourists and locals, also resulted in multiple injuries.
Four men were arrested on suspicion of selling a gun to the boy, who was charged with attempted murder, carrying and firing a gun in a public place, and owning an unlicensed firearm.
Sukvimol said police may not pursue the case until the suspect, presently undergoing treatment for a mental illness, was fit to stand trial. The statute of limitations in the case is 20 years.
“If the medical team is of the opinion that the child is ready, investigators will be sent together with interprofessionals, lawyers, and parents to jointly interrogate,” he said, insisting the boy was not a threat to the community and promised the victims’ families that justice will be served.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin agreed. “We’re definitely not buying time. The 14-year-old boy has mental abnormalities and needs to be well treated,” he said.
03:15
Teen suspect in fatal mass shooting in Thai shopping mall charged with murder
Sukvimol said his proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility also stemmed from the fact that more juveniles were involved in crimes, the Thai Examiner reported.
“Crime by children has become more severe. They are copying it from social media, and criminals are getting younger and younger,” he said.
Last September, a 19-year-old was arrested for allegedly beating his French father to death with a hammer at their home in Bangkok.
According to police, social workers had previously visited the house twice to take the son for mental treatment, but he refused to cooperate.
The shopping centre shooting came days before the first anniversary of the deadliest massacre in modern Thai history, in which a former policeman armed with a gun and knife attacked a nursery in the country’s north, murdering 24 children and 12 adults.
