Anything for love
Suspect, Theerasak Phuanphong.
Theerasak “Pe” Phuanphong, 36, shot at a motorcycle carrying his girlfriend, Nano, 15, and her friend, Tok Taek, 14, in Ban Dung district on Dec 17. Tok Taek, who was driving, was shot in the left leg but is now out of danger.
The teens were trying to flee Mr Theerasak, who three days before had imprisoned Nano out of jealousy when she came home late after a night out with friends.
Nano and Mr Theerasak were in a relationship and had been together just a month before the shooting incident, having met through an older friend of hers.
It was a whirlwind romance, with her not yet of legal age and Mr Theerasak an unstable character prone to fits of jealousy who also took drugs, she told police after the shooting.
Despite being more than 20 years her senior, Mr Theerasak asked Nano’s parents if he could marry their daughter. He offered a 10,000 baht dowry and gold ring weighing one saleung.
Nano quickly regretted the decision, as she found out later that her boyfriend was involved in drugs. He also beat her up repeatedly out of fear that she was seeing other men.
Nano decided to put distance between herself and Mr Theerasak, which led to arguments. Four days before the shooting, tensions escalated when Nano went out with friends and came home late.
In anger, Mr Theerasak locked her and a friend at their rented place overnight. The following morning she was able to call another friend for help and managed to escape.
Nano spent the next three days taking shelter at Tok Taek’s family home.
Mr Theerasak called constantly, asking if they could start again, and by the third day he had discovered where she was staying.
Nano asked Tok Taek to take her home that morning on her motorcycle, but they were just 15 minutes into their journey when Mr Theerasak spotted the pair as he was travelling on the same road.
“Quick, hurry, try to lose him,” passenger Nano urged Tok Taek. She sped up, but Mr Theerasak was able to get ahead and block their path in front of a local hotel.
He took out a .38 calibre handgun and shot at them without uttering a word. The bullet hit Tok Taek in the left thigh. When she realised her friend had been shot, Nano jumped off the bike and blocked his path to stop him attacking them again.
Mr Theerasak fled the scene. Nano, who did not know her boyfriend owned a gun, said she was shocked by the incident and pleased her friend escaped serious injury.
She and Tok Taek, who was treated in hospital, laid a complaint with police.
Officers at the station asked Nano to call Mr Theerasak and persuade him to surrender. After some initial resistance, eventually he agreed. “I just did it out of concern and love,” he told police, as if that made it okay.
They charged him with attempting to kill and firearms offences.
Finishing off the job
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| Kittipoj Lunnakan, who killed a neighbour. |
At Samat police nabbed Kittipoj Lunnakan, 29, for killing Nubon Pankaew, 63, with a machete as she sat peeling fruit outside her home.
Mr Kittipoj, who lives one house away and has been treated for drug abuse, fled to a nearby fruit plantation where police nabbed him.
This is the second time in a month that they have had to deal with Mr Kittipoj’s drug-fuelled rages, after he attacked the victim’s husband, Weerawat Pankaew, 75, over the head with a hammer on Nov 28.
The injury needed two stitches but he survived. Media reports conflict as to why Mr Kittipoj was still on the loose.
Some say police were unable to prosecute as Mr Kittipoj was deemed a drugs rehab patient rather than an offender. However, other reports, quoting Mr Weerawat, say police were still working on his complaint stemming from the Nov 28 attack, which meant he was still on the loose.
Mr Kittipoj believed the victim and her husband were abusing his family, so sought vengeance, he said later. “They cursed us, and as a result five members of my family have died,” he told police in a drug-addled state.
Media reports say he had been to rehab for his drug problem but kept taking drugs upon his release. He lives alone, police say. His family fled in fear of their own safety, as Mr Kittipoj flies into rages when high.
Mr Weerawat, who was in the kitchen at the time of the attack on his wife, heard Nubon’s call for help. He rushed to her aid, and when Mr Kittipoj saw him, he fled.
When police caught up with the attacker, Mr Kittpoj, who made little sense, claimed he heard the victim cursing his family from his place one house away. He grabbed a machete and headed over there on his pushbike.
Police sent him for psychiatric treatment, but say charges are pending.
Mad shooter on the loose
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| The scene of the shooting. |
Khao Yoi police are looking for Suphap Rodsai, 55, after he shot Thanadon Yaemklao, 44, in the left arm from the back of the victim’s pickup. The men live in the same village and know each other in passing.
Though Mr Suphap had previously accused him of trespass and theft, Mr Thanadon evidently decided to let bygones be bygones.
Mr Thanadon, a trader, said he offered Mr Suphap a smile by way of greeting on Dec 19 as he saw Mr Suphap approaching on the opposite side of the road.
Mr Thanadon, who was in his pickup with his wife, was picking up an order of bananas and coconut to sell at the local market.
As he parked on the side of the road to talk to customers, Mr Suphap, who saw the greeting, turned his motorcycle around and doubled back.
He parked behind the pickup, pulled out a .38 calibre handgun and shot twice into the rear. One bullet hit Mr Thanadon in the left arm, the other went through the windshield.
He said Mr Suphap tried to shoot again but he must have been out of bullets, as the gun did not fire.
Mr Thanadon, who realised he had been injured, got out and asked his attacker why he shot him. “You and your friends trespass on my coconut plantation and wave a torch about at night,” he said.
Mr Thanadon, who has heard Mr Suphap make such allegations before, denied it, just as he has done previously. The shooter fled.
Shortly before the incident, Mr Thanadon was to learn later, Mr Suphap also shot at a house owned by a local car repairer about 100m away.
Nares Pansuwan, 47, said Mr Suphap, as in Mr Thanadon’s case, had previously accused him of theft from the plantation.
He denied ever setting foot inside the place and suspects the attacker was hallucinating on drugs.
Recounting the ordeal, Mr Nares said: “At 5.30am, he parked outside my place and abused us. He shouted: ‘You will have me die, will you?’
“He then pulled out a gun and started shooting. We dived under the table and threw ourselves on the floor.
“Luckily, he hit no one, though the bullets struck a house post, a car window, and a door frame,” he said. The victims filed a complaint, and police were looking for the attacker.
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