Thai teen allegedly shoots himself in face while playing with gun

A Thai teenager in the southern province of Phattalung allegedly shot himself in the face while playing with a gun, but his father doubts this, believing that his son may have been attacked by someone.

Officers from Kong Ra Police Station rushed to a wooden hut in the Kong Ra district of Phattalung after being notified of the shooting at about 4.20am yesterday, August 12. The teenager, who suffered a gunshot wound to his cheek, was taken to Kong Ra Hospital before the police arrived.

Officers found drops of blood around and outside the hut and learned from other teenagers at the scene that the victim was a 14 year old boy named A. A and four male friends, along with three female friends, attended a birthday party at another friend’s home before coming to the hut.

One of the female friends, Bee, told police that she heard the gunshot at about 4am while she and the others were using their mobile phones. They discovered that A had been shot and rushed him to the hospital on their motorcycles before reporting the incident to police.

Bee stated that she did not know who owned the gun but only A and another male friend named Moo had been handling it. The others ignored the two and remained focused on their phones.

According to the police, A’s four male friends were not present at the scene but they will be summoned for questioning later. Officers believe that A played with the gun and accidentally shot himself.

A’s mother told Channel 3 that she was contacted by the hospital, who informed her that her son needed urgent surgery to remove a bullet from his face. Her son had asked for 40 baht from her the night before and promised to return home once the rain stopped but he never did.

A’s father does not believe that the shooting was an accident because he noticed multiple gunshot wounds in the same area on his son’s face, suggesting that he was shot repeatedly. Five of the boy’s teeth were also missing, leading the father to suspect that his son was physically assaulted.

Channel 3 reported that the medical team spent about five hours removing the bullet from his face and the boy’s condition remains serious.