9 Shot to Death in Buddhist Temple Attack

Nine people, including several Buddhist monks, were found shot to death Saturday in a temple where worshipers were believed to be keeping an unknown quantity of jewelry, gold and artwork, authorities said.

Among the dead were an elderly woman and a man about 20 years old, who apparently were visiting the Arizona Buddhist Temple, located in a remote cotton field on the outskirts of the city.

The victims, all from Thailand, were found in a living room of the building in what police at first characterized as an aborted robbery, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Agnos said. However, the motive became a mystery when police concluded that no valuables were missing after the attack, Agnos said.

Asian gang experts were being brought in to assist in the investigation, but police declined to elaborate on what they had found inside the modest one-story structure.

Residents in the area said the temple contained a 12-foot-high statue of Buddha, made of brass or gold leaf, as well as smaller statues of Buddha and several paintings of unknown value. The temple also was believed to contain gold, jewelry, computers and other valuable electronic equipment. But one member, Soophachai Chantharangsee, downplayed the collection of items, saying: “They might have looked expensive, but they were not valuable.”

The temple was built three years ago by its mostly Thai-speaking members, who raised $130,000 to buy the site and construct the modest building. It is the only Thai Buddhist temple in the Phoenix area, serving about 450 Thais, Cambodians and Laotians.

Most of those killed in the attack were believed to be monks living on the premises, which included a worship area and several bedrooms. One of the slain monks was believed to be a 20-year-old Thai who had arrived in the United States only recently to join the order. The leader of the order was identified as Pairach, 36, who went by only one name and established his group in Phoenix six years ago.

As police searched for clues in the attack, about 100 mourners gathered at the dirt road leading to the site in a sometimes-emotional vigil.

“I just feel shocked,” said one mourner, Jerry Hastings, 19, whose grandmother is a Buddhist nun who had been living at the temple. Hastings said he believes that she is dead because officials had told his mother that no one was found alive inside.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “When my mother told me, I thought it was a joke or something. They were all lying dead on the floor.”

Throughout the afternoon, grief-stricken temple members arrived, embraced and cried as they stood and sat together in the 100-degree heat. They found it difficult to imagine a motive for the slayings.

Asked who might be responsible, temple member Pranee Meeks said: “We have no idea because the temple was open for anybody. We never even locked the gate.”

“This is really sad,” said temple member Chantharangsee, who lauded the monks as gentle, compassionate people. “Those men, they would never do any harm to anyone. They don’t even harm an ant.”

The bodies were discovered shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday by Chawee Borders, 50, a temple worshiper who went to take flowers, according to her husband, Phil. A sheriff’s spokesman said it was unknown whether the slayings had occurred Friday night or early Saturday.

In the wake of the killings, Buddhist monks were flying into Phoenix from temples in Los Angeles and Chicago to tend to families of the victims. Temple leaders, meanwhile, were trying to decide how they might go on with Sunday morning services.

Staff writer David Ferrell in Los Angeles contributed to this story.