Love triangle implodes, dope fiend frenzy, masochist shooter

It was never going to end well

Soda, who works at a petrol station in Udon Thani, after his attack by a co-worker.

An Udon Thani woman has decided to call it quits with her two male admirers after they came to blows in a battle for her affections.

Pen, 33, who works at a petrol station in Muang district, is at the centre of a love triangle after she started seeing two of her co-workers at the same time. She was unable to bring herself to choose with the result that both came to blows.

Pen, who has been working at the station for about a year and is still there despite the drama which unfolded last week, said she started seeing co-worker Pan, 58, shortly after she took up the job. A month ago, she also fell in love with another co-worker, Soda, who is just 23.

Both men knew about the other and were not happy about it, but Pen could not bring herself to choose.

“Soda knew I had been seeing Pan first, and Pan found out later I was seeing Soda. Pan felt jealous, and I told Soda I wanted to call it quits.

“But he refused as he said he loved me already; so, I was forced to go between one and the other, as both were jealous of the other,” she told reporters.

On the day of the incident, Soda had the day off but turned up at the station to kill time with her anyway.

“Pan came to pick me up at 5.30pm in his pickup, and parked it inside the station. When Soda saw him, he rushed over and kicked his vehicle,” she said.

“I tried to stop him but I was no match for his strength. Soda picked up a broom and tried to chase Pan away with it, but Pan returned to his vehicle and came out with a long knife, and started stabbing Soda with it.”

After stabbing Soda in the right rib cage, Pan fled the scene. Pen took Soda to sit on a plastic chair while a bystander, who wrote about the saga on social media, called for help.

Pen, who started seeing two co-workers at once.

The bystander, posting under the name Phosri Chaiwut, spoke to Pen, who said Pan plunged in the knife as far as it would go. Soda, meanwhile, said he was having trouble breathing.

“I told a worker at the station to press the wound to stop the bleeding, and call emergency,” he said.

Doctors said the knife entered Soda’s lungs, but patched him up and declared he was no longer in danger.

After being released from hospital, Soda laid a police complaint against Pan for assault; Pan earlier visited the station to lay a complaint of his own against Soda, and insisted he was acting in self-defence.

Pen said she went to see Soda in hospital before he was discharged, but had decided to cut both men out of her life.

“I wanted to keep seeing both, even though I knew that ultimately I would have to choose. But I hadn’t yet reached that point,” she said.

“After today’s incident, I won’t choose anyone. I don’t want to be accused of taking sides. I will tell both I am no longer willing to see them, because they can’t be reconciled.

“I want to be in a quiet space and alone for a bit.” Pan is likely to face charges of attempting to kill.

One gun’s as good as another

Cannabis-crazed Si Sa Ket student Veerapap shot his uncle.

A cannabis-crazed Si Sa Ket student shot his uncle after he asked him about buying a gun.

Muang police nabbed Veerapap Saraphon, 19, a first-year technical student, after he shot Suthin Nuchanat, 41, three times at the family home.

He fired at him six times from his unlicensed .38, but only three bullets hit their target.

Saithong Kaewmanee, 66, said Mr Suthin, her son-in-law, was sitting with his wife, Patcharaporn, making desserts to sell in the market when she heard Veerapap, her grandson, call him outside.

When Mr Suthin failed to respond, Mr Veerapap, a heavy marijuana user, showed up at the front door and shot him.

One bullet hit him in the back, another in the right shoulder, and a third in right arm. Mr Suthin managed to run into the house, but collapsed. Ms Saithong said she stood in Mr Veerapap’s path to protect Mr Suthin, and pleaded with him to stop.

Mr Veerapap, however, tried climbing in the window to shoot Mr Suthin again, though according to reports was subdued by locals, who held him until police arrived.

“Rescue workers took the victim to hospital. My grandson is a heavy cannabis user. Our family has taken him to rehab but he relapses. Normally he and Suthin are close; he loves the boy dearly and they go fishing together,” she said.

The young man admitted shooting his relative but said he was hallucinating. The two were earlier sitting outside when Mr Suthin asked him whether to buy a .22 calibre gun.

“I thought one gun was as good as another, and suspected he wanted it to kill me,” Mr Veerapap told police.

Police, who say the offender made little sense when they arrested him, were likely to charge him with attempting to kill and firearms offences.

He wanted to know how it felt

The armed stand-off with police unfolds in in Ayutthaya

An Ayutthaya man shot himself in the leg amid an armed stand-off with police out of guilt for earlier shooting his wife.

Uthai police nabbed Kritsada Paewpluang after he shot his wife Phisamai Simarun following an argument.

CCTV vision shows Ms Phisamai fleeing down the street and calling for help after her husband shot her at their two-storey home.

The pair had earlier been to the police station where Ms Phisamai laid a complaint against him for trespass.

The two, who work for a company in an industrial estate and have been married for years, had earlier agreed to end their marriage after Mr Kritsada lost 700,000 baht in a crypto investment.

The debt and his own tendency to feel jealous towards his wife led to arguments. Ms Phisamai finally drove him out of their home, but he kept coming back to check on her.

On the day of the incident, media reports say, he broke into their house and tried to talk to his wife. However, she refused to play along and went to see the police.

After she laid her complaint, they returned to their marital home when they resumed arguing, and Mr Kritsada shot her in the rib cage and abdomen.

Kritsada, after his arrest for shooting his wife.

Neighbours called rescue workers and police. Five hours of negotiations followed in which the offender’s elder sister was among those pleading with him to give up.

“He said he didn’t mean to hurt anyone but was reluctant to come out because he wasn’t sure if his wife would come back to him again,” she said later. His sister, unnamed in news reports, turned up at the house in response to a police request.

“He also told me he had shot himself in the left leg to see how it felt. He wanted to take his own life but lacked the courage. He had intended to kill his wife but when he survived the shooting had second thoughts about ending it all,” she added.

Rescue workers said they dived for cover when three shots rang out from inside the house as the stand-off with police began.

Police and commandos wearing body armour told neighbours to leave the area as talks continued.

Finally at 8pm he came out with his hands above his head. Police seized his .38 calibre handgun, offered him a meal and took him to the station, where he was charged with attempting to kill and firearms offences.

Pol Maj Manas Atthadod, head of Uthai station, said Ms Phisamai was in a serious condition but recovering.

She had asked for a divorce, but Mr Kritsada kept turning up at the house because he was worried she was seeing someone else, he said.

Abbot gets no thanks, son-in-law flees, bathtub exit

Bad drug memories

The scene of the abbot’s murder in Ayutthaya.

A young monk in Ayutthaya knifed to death an elderly abbot in a frenzied attack which police believe was brought on by drug-fuelled psychiatric problems.

Bang Sai police nabbed Phra Ano Mukpradap, 26, for stabbing to death the abbot, Phra Khru Khantithammanuwat, or Ekanart Ketchot, 75, in his living quarters at Bang Sai Nai temple.

The young knifeman did not wait around to be defrocked but changed into civilian gear of shorts and a military-pattern T-shirt while waiting for police.

Police video shows him yelling and crying as he was led away. He had tossed the weapon, a long knife, into a lake in front of the monks’ quarters, which police retrieved.

While the suspect was talking little sense, one temple worker heard him say that a “higher authority” had urged him to kill the abbot.

Family members say the suspect had been in the monkhood just two or three months after entering rehab for his drug habit.

His father, they say, helped with temple building works and had asked the abbot to help his son ordain.

“He wanted his son to make a clean break from drugs. The abbot felt sorry for the father so agreed, but ended up paying for his generosity,” one observer said.

The abbot was stabbed in the chest once, the back three times, and slashed about the head another three times. Temple assistants sent him to hospital but he died from his injuries.

Police found blood scattered in front of the abbot’s quarters, and items strewn about inside, showing signs of a struggle.

One monk who saw the clash said the abbot fled but the suspect pursued him and kept stabbing him until he fell. He said an earlier argument with his father may have set him off.

“The suspect called his Dad asking him to bring more meds, but when he arrived they started to argue. The abbot urged the father to go home and told off the suspect for speaking harshly to his father. He also urged the monk to keep taking his meds.

“Phra Ano was upset and his condition flared up. He hit the abbot with the knife and hid inside the monk’s quarters. We sent the abbot to hospital and called the police,” he said.

One media report said Phra Ano wasn’t willing to take meds, which he received from the hospital as recently as Sept 2.

“No one was courageous enough to go near him except the abbot who would urge him to take the meds for his own good. However, he responded by kicking him, hitting him and stabbing him,” said the monk who witnessed the attack.

Phra Ano’s elder brother, Anon Thamnam, 33, said the suspect was heavily addicted and hallucinating when he entered rehab.

“He was psychologically ill and has a history of being treated in hospital. However, I am not sure if he was still taking meds when he entered the monkhood,” he said.

Police were waiting for him to regain his composure before contemplating charges, and had sent the abbot’s body for an autopsy.

A fondness for arson

Some parts of the house were damaged by the blaze

Udon Thani police are tracking down the son-in-law from hell who is accused of setting fire to the home of his pregnant girlfriend before fleeing with her family’s flat-screen TV.

Police in Muang district are pursuing a druggie known as Sukphat, captured on CCTV fleeing his parents-in-law’s house last week on a motorcycle and clutching their TV.

Neighbours alerted the owners, Somjai Phokapanich, 57, and his wife Orakanya, 45, after they noticed flames coming from their place.

They had gone to work but raced back in time to put out the blaze, in which Sukphat is accused of using paint as an accelerant.

Mr Somjai, who has had an ongoing battle with the young man after he set fire to their place three times previously, smashed up their belongings and had earlier stolen their motorcycle.

“He is aggressive and won’t listen to anyone,” he said. Previously he set fire to his own parents’ vehicle repair yard when he was hallucinating on drugs.

“In this case, he was angry that I complained to the police about his drug habit. He does no work apart from selling drugs. We have gone to the police three times about his behaviour and now disown him as our son-in-law,” he said.

The suspect flees with a flat-screen TV.

Mr Somjai said this was the fourth time he had set fire to their home. He gained access by breaking a window and had also damaged furniture, a wrought iron clothesline, and a mosquito screen. He said his son-in-law had once also set off an improvised explosive device at their place, hoping to blow them up.

Ms Orakanya said Sukphat had asked to move in with them, and they agreed because their daughter is pregnant with his child. “Police caught him once with 90 pills, and he suspects Somjai was behind that bust so felt vengeful,” she said.

Mr Somjai, who described his son-in-law as a danger to society, said he had chased him away previously but he kept coming back. “We put up with it because our daughter is pregnant.” Police are tracking him down.

Sad and sudden ending

The house where the couple died in the bath

A Samut Prakan man prone to jealousy and depression shot his wife to death and then took his own life as they lay together in the family bathtub.

Akin Thammabuacha, 24, shot his wife Pattyada Leelathaweephat, also 24, with a Thai-modified .380 calibre gun, also found in the tub.

Family members prised open the bathroom door on the second storey of their home after calling and failing to get an answer.

The couple, who were naked, had shown no signs they were having problems, says Akin’s younger brother, Wutthichai, 21, who was sleeping in his room opposite at the suspected time of death.

“I didn’t notice anything odd, or hear the sound of the gun,” said Mr Wutthichai. “They were both jealous types, though I took no notice as it was personal. When they argued, they would try not to let anyone else in the family see,” he added.

The shooter’s grandmother, Khan Kranbut, 67, said the couple left behind two children, a son aged two and a daughter aged six.

“They were married for ages but Akin had no work. Pattyada worked as an agent for a company selling second-hand houses. I saw them talking normally that morning; they said they’d take their little one to see the doctor,” she said.

“At 3pm, the couple went upstairs and didn’t return so I took the kids outside to play. When we returned I let the kids go up and knock on the door, but no one answered, so I assumed they were asleep.

“Akin’s mother came back from work at 9pm, went up and knocked at the door, but still there was no answer. We took a knife and used it to prise open the door when we found their bodies in the tub,” she said. Her grandson, she said, has a history of depression but was taking his meds.

Muang police head Pol Col Noppadon Changruan said police suspect Akin took his wife’s life first, followed by his own, with jealousy and depression both probable factors.

Weed plant flames fatal attack, brotherly love, old tricks

Better than the 7-11

Anu Boonklansorn is nabbed for killing Pornthep

A Samut Prakan druggie helping himself to a local’s marijuana plant lashed out with a knife when challenged, killing the husband of a pregnant woman.

Bang Sao Thong police nabbed Anu Boonklansorn, 33, for stabbing to death Pornthep Sriwan, 29, who was taking his pregnant wife on their motorcycle home after buying a meal.

Pornthep saw Mr Anu trimming a marijuana plant in front of a local’s house and, disregarding his wife’s advice to say nothing, asked the man what he was doing.

“Who the hell are you?” Mr Anu, who has been treated for a psychiatric condition which his family says is aggravated by his drug habit, responded.

The victim’s wife, Siriporn Singkhan, 37, who is eight months pregnant, said Mr Anu lunged at her with his knife. Her husband sped up on his motorcycle to avoid trouble, but a few metres down the road lost his balance and tipped over.

Mr Anu charged over and again lunged for Ms Siriporn with his knife, but her husband pushed her out of harm’s way and took the blow himself. He was stabbed in the chest and died later from his injuries.

The marijuana plant

Ms Siriporn was hurt when the bike toppled over, injuring both knees and cutting her lip. Security video shows the killer fleeing the scene on foot after the stabbing.

The marijuana tree is owned by Chamroon Poolsawat, 47, who said he has been growing cannabis since the government loosened up the rules.

“I grow it to share with locals, who cut a bit of it for themselves regularly. We use it to add to food, not to sell commercially or smoke,” he said.

“I had been talking to someone just the night before about cutting down the tree as strangers keep turning up helping themselves. It wasn’t doing much good to anyone and I was worried about safety issues.

“However, I didn’t have time to do anything about it when this incident occurred,” he added.

Neighbours told him that Mr Anu was among those who turned up and without asking anyone helped himself.

Mr Anu lives 200m away and wanders up and down the street talking to himself, locals say. His family says he has been treated for a psychiatric condition fuelled by his drugs habit but refuses to take his meds.

Police took 50 officers to surround his place and arrest him. When he saw them he climbed onto the roof of a neighbour’s house, armed with knife and still smoking marijuana.

Police tried to talk him down and had to apply electric shocks to subdue him, as he refused to relent.

Much to the surprise of the police arresting him, the suspect asked them as they subdued him if they sold weed. Officers searching his place say they found a “huge” amount of marijuana, a pot for distilling ganja juice, and kratom.

His mother, unnamed in news reports, said Mr Anu had been treated at Somdet Chao Phraya Hospital but asked to move to Bang Phli Hospital which is closer to home.

“For the past two years he refuses to take his drugs, and just lately has been taking drugs every day,” she said.

“He started to show signs that his condition was worsening a couple of months ago. However, he has never gone crazy or hurt people before,” she added.

Neighbours said he is often seen clutching a knife as he walks up and down. “We complain and the cops grab him but release him a few days later. He had also threatened to kill a kid,” one told the media.

Police charged him with murder with intent.

It just happened to go off

Police inspect the house and its surroundings.

A Phitsanulok man shot and killed his brother after a row, but insists it was an accident.

Wat Bot police nabbed Paitoon, 35, for shooting his brother Denchai, 41, with a Thai-modified cap gun at their family home. He tossed his weapon and fled the scene into a nearby forest, where officers caught him. They retrieved the weapon nearby.

The pair had been out drinking separately that night and came home drunk, says their mother, Chanhom, 63.

She was taking a shower when she heard them argue, but as they scrap all the time she paid little notice. Then she heard the gun go off. “I dressed in a hurry, in time to see Paitoon fleeing the house without a word,” she said.

The latest argument concerned the farm truck they use to deliver cassava locally. “One brother will accuse the other of failing to take proper care of it, or failing to refill the tank,” she said.

Ms Chanhom, who has three children, says her daughter works in the provinces.

The boys earlier left home to start a family but when their marriages ended came back about six months ago, when their arguments also resumed.

Mr Paitoon admitted the pair argued before the shooting. He said he pulled out his gun, but his elder brother wrested it off him.

“He cursed me, accusing me of trying to kill him. Moments later Denchai was having a meal when I picked up my gun to put it in my bag when it accidentally went off,” the suspect told police.

Mr Paitoon said he had told his brother he was heading into the forest when the gun discharged. “I saw my brother fall, panicked and fled,” he said.

Police say the bullet entered the victim’s neck.

However, officers say they also noticed injuries to Denchai’s forehead and head, and bruising to the chest, which suggests he was hit with a solid object, possibly the barrel of the weapon.

Pol Maj Gen Thawat Wongsanga, head of the provincial police, said the wound is consistent with the weapon being held at an angle.

“The suspect can say what he likes, but we have charged him initially with murder with intent and await the results of tests,” he said.

Too good a trade to give up

Suwan is nabbed for stealing motorcycles.

A convicted Buri Ram vehicle smuggler put his skills in the trade to good use, teaching inmates how to repair motorcycles while serving time inside.

However, once he was released he returned to his old offending habit, claiming the vehicle trade was the only one he knew. Chalerm Prakiat police last week nabbed Suwan, 51, for stealing motorcycles and sending them across the border for 2,000 baht each.

He said he needed money to care for his ageing father, though he also admitted spending on a gambling habit. Officers say he was stealing locals’ bikes parked at flea markets in Krasang, Prakhon Chai, and Nong Ki districts.

Suwan was earlier jailed four years ago for stealing pushbikes and motorcycles and selling them across the border. Back then he said he needed the money to treat his own gout condition. He stole 40 bikes, and was sent away for nine months.

“While inside, he turned teacher, instructing inmates how to fix motorcycle engines. However, when he came out he went back to his old tricks,” one officer involved in the latest arrest said.

Suwan said there’s probably no work he can do better than stealing bikes, so keeps returning to it.

Fatal drug bender, grandson runs amok, dare backfires

Jealousy, drugs wreak havoc

Rungrort being led away after he killed Ploy, his girlfriend.

A young man in Bangkok killed his girlfriend of nine years after succumbing to a drug-induced meltdown.

Wat Phraya Krai police in Bang Kholaem nabbed Rungrort, 24, after he attacked his girlfriend Minthira, or Ploy, also 24, over the head with a clothes iron, stabbed her with a sword knife, and smashed her in the face with a soda water bottle.

She died in the bedroom of his father’s place where the couple had moved just two days before, following an earlier incident in which he attacked someone at a place he and his girlfriend were renting.

Rungrort, a food delivery rider, and Ploy, who worked in a restaurant, have a two-year-old son. His father, Pornchai, 64, said Ploy has stuck by him faithfully for nine years despite his problems with drinking, marijuana, and speed, which he believes fuelled the attack.

Rungrort, who admits taking marijuana and drinking kratom beforehand, says he attacked his girlfriend after she urged him to sleep. “I didn’t want to sleep so kept watching the news,” he said, as if that was provocation enough.

Rungrort

Family members say, however, that he actually succumbed to jealousy, after seeing Ploy return to their place with a messenger. Hallucinating under the influence of the drugs, he accused her of seeing the messenger on the sly, which led to an argument.

A friend of Ploy’s knows the messenger, and asked him to take Ploy back home. She had been admitted to hospital two days before after taking a drug overdose and trying to end her own life.

“She was miserable living with Rungrort. She loved him but he kept abusing drugs,” she said.

Ploy had her stomach pumped and was heading home when Rungrort, fatefully, saw the pair on the motorcycle together and in his drug-addled mind assumed they were secret lovers.

His father, Pornchai, said he was resting on the third storey of his home when he heard his son and Ploy arguing below, before everything fell silent. “I went downstairs and he told me he had killed her,” he told reporters.

Ploy’s body was slumped against the wall and bore five stab wounds to the face, neck, head and arms.

“My son was acting like a mad man and tried to flee. I told him that if he attacked me I would take his life. He tried to flee so I punched him in the face by the head of the stairs. Below, he grabbed his motorcycle but couldn’t find the keys, so I kicked him and he fell to the ground. I called 911,” he said.

Police say Rungrort spoke no sense when they arrested him.

The next morning, TV news footage shows police leading Rungrort out of a holding cell. He told reporters he did not know why he was there. When they told him incredulously that he killed his girlfriend, the slightly built Rungrort started to cry.

Slowly, the drugs started to wear off. Later, news footage shows him apologising at the feet of his father for what he had done.

His father was in tears as he contemplated his son’s misdeeds. “Why did you do it to her? She was so good to you,” Pornchai said.

Rungrort begged his father’s forgiveness, saying that he was just 24 and didn’t mean any harm.

Ploy’s father visited the house where his daughter was killed for a ceremony to release her spirit, but was not game to go upstairs to suspect the crime scene.

TV news footage shows him outside the house, slamming his head and punching himself in grief against the metal sliding door. “I have worked hard all my life raising Ploy only for her to meet her fate at the hands of a person like that. I can’t accept it and will be waiting for the killer when he gets out of jail,” he said.

Her father, unnamed in news reports, said he had asked Ploy to quit with him as he drank, took drugs, did no work, and had her pay for everything.

Ploy’s family said she had tried to book Rungrort into a drugs rehab clinic previously, but they had run out of beds. Police, who say a urine test of the suspect turned up no trace of hard drugs, charged him with murder.

They didn’t make it in time

Kiat was nabbed after he killed his grandma and grandad.

A Kalasin couple were slain by their own grandson as they tried to take him to see a psychiatrist about his decaying mental state.

Muang police nabbed Kiat (assumed name), 18, for slaying his grandma, Suchada Nansathit, 58, and grandad, Wandee Nansathit, 63, at their two-storey home. He slashed both in the nape of the neck with a hooked grass-cutting blade.

Relatives had arrived and were crying as police turned up to arrest the culprit, Kiat, who police say has no history of trouble for taking drugs.

However, he does have psychiatric problems, and had sought medical help before. His grandparents, who lived with him alone in the house, were taking him back for another visit when Kiat, apparently feeling put out about it, attacked them.

Suksan Matprasong, 45, an assistant village head, says locals sought out his help, saying the couple had been attacked.

“I turned up with two other locals, found the killer there and noticed he was holding a knife. He rushed at me, but I ducked. The young man saw I had brought help and decided to flee on his motorcycle, but locals caught up with him in the village,” he said.

Village head Patchara Suriyo, 50, said he was surprised by the attack, as Kiat had never run amok before or harmed anyone in the family. His mother, Kanokporn, 36, lives in another village.

When police arrested Kiat he was making no sense. Officers were giving him a urine test, but say he has no history of drug arrests.

Quickly outnumbered

One of the weapons left at the scene.

A Nakhon Sawan man who came looking for trouble after exchanging dares with a friend-turned-foe on social media ended up dead in a frenzied attack outside his mate’s home.

Muang police nabbed brothers Nakaret “Bright” Saithong, 24, and Natthawut “Pep” Saithong, 22, for killing Polpee “Tao” Preechacharn, 28, in front of their home on Aug 27.

Officers seized a hoe and a long machete blade which the pair used to attack the victim.

When rescue workers arrived Polpee had bruises and knife wounds all over his body, and was covered in blood. They applied first-aid but he succumbed later in hospital.

Officers caught up with Nakaret, who following the attack fled to a house nearby. He told police on the way to the station that his younger brother was also involved.

Arriving at the station, police found Natthawut was already there, laying a complaint against the victim Polpee, whom he said turned up at their place with a knife.

Natthawut said he attacked the victim in self-defence. However, he did not know yet that he and his brother had actually killed the young man.

When police told him the victim had since died, he collapsed and had to be taken to hospital.

After the pair were arrested later, Natthawut said the fight was the result of a misunderstanding. Polpee thought mistakenly that Natthawut had abused his parents. They exchanged insults on social media before challenging each other.

Polpee turned up at the brothers’ house with his knife but when Nakaret saw his younger sibling was being attacked, picked up the hoe and joined the fray.

Reporters went to Wat Sai for the victim’s funeral, where they met his mother, Jenchira Preechachan, 46. She said the three were friends but fell out, and Polpee was her only son.

“I went to the hospital to see him, where doctors were trying in vain to save his life. I felt so sorry for him, as even his face was covered in stab wounds,” she said.

Police charged the brothers with jointly attacking someone causing his death, and weapons charges.