Killer takes up challenge
Prai standing by the fence where he took aim.
Ban Dung police nabbed Prai (no surname provided), 47, for shooting to death Sompong (no surname provided), 58, at a wrist-tying ceremony at the home of a Tambon Administrative Organisation ex-chairman.
News reports focused on his shooting skills; Prai balanced his cap gun on a barbed wire fence and took out his target in the dark from 30m away.
Sompong was shot twice in neck, and once in both shoulders. One bullet lodged in his breathing pipe and lungs, leading to his death despite guests’ efforts to save him.
Sompong and the shooter’s ex-wife, Ratchanee, or Sai Fon (no surname provided), 43, had both joined the ceremony.
They were getting to know each other romantically, which incensed Prai, who was trying to appease his ex-wife even after she ended their relationship three or four months before.
Prai and Sai Fon, together for less than a year, split up after she tired of his jealous antics and decided he wasn’t much use as a partner. “He said while I could quit with him, he wasn’t prepared to quit with me,” Sai Fon told reporters.
“He would not let me talk to other men, and even spoke ill of my daughter, aged five,” she said.
Speaking to police following his arrest, Prai said he had warned both of what was coming. He said he had to act to bring the “love triangle” to an end because his injured pride couldn’t stand the constant insults.
“On the matter of love I will not yield. Before the incident I circled the place 3-4 times to get the law of the land. I saw my wife join the ceremony. She had dared me, saying if I wanted to kill them I should turn up.”
He had also warned Sompong to stop flirting with his ex-wife, or he would kill him.
A group of four men including Sompong had gathered at the rear of the house for a few drinks following the ceremony, held to welcome into the world the offspring of the owner’s child.
Witness Songkran (no surname provided), 39, a relative of the house owner, said he heard the shot but at first thought it was someone clapping.
“We didn’t know the shooter’s position as it was dark. Sompong was calling out saying he had been shot. He was sitting in his chair at first, but fell over as he ran out of air. I gave him CPR. He regained his seat but had lost a lot of blood. Rescue workers took him to hospital, where he died later,” he said.
“The suspect shouldn’t shoot someone at an auspicious event like this, in front of everyone. They should try talking it out instead. He quit with Sai Fon, so she has every right to talk to whoever she likes. It’s all very sad,” he added.
While Sai Fon responded to Prai’s threats by challenging him, Sompong decided to take out life insurance.
His mother, Pan 74, said her son’s wife died two years ago, leaving him a widower and a father.
After he met Sai Fon, he told his mother he was getting ready to start a new family. The only problem was Sai Fon’s ex-husband, who would not let her go.
“My son’s last words to me, half an hour before he died, were prophetic. He said if Prai wanted to kill him, so be it, as he had taken out plenty of insurance,” she told reporters.
Police charged the shooter with premeditated murder.
Angry words carry price
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| Atthapon Mongkolthanasap |
Dan Chang police nabbed five youths for shooting to death Atthapon Mongkolthanasap, 27, at an intersection close to the home of a customer, Pla Sadsri.
Atthapon and his wife, Venuka (no surname given), 31, who accompanied him on the back of his bike, had tried to drop off a parcel at Ms Pla’s home in the early evening of March 17, without success.
“When Atthapon arrived he saw a bunch of youths outside the house and asked if Ms Pla was in. They told him she wasn’t home, so he wandered back to his bike to call her,” Venuka told police.
Ms Pla told him she wasn’t available to accept delivery of the parcel, and asked him to come back the next day. This upset Atthapon, who said she wasn’t the only customer in those parts waiting for a delivery.
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| Nirut ‘Puen’ Sadsri |
CCTV vision shows the pair leaving the house at 6.39pm and the teens following on their bikes at 6.44pm. They kept tailing him as Atthapon entered a nearby soi to make a delivery, apparently without attracting his attention.
The teens left the soi at 6.47pm, ahead of Atthapon, so they could lie in wait at the intersection. The victim was shot barely two minutes later.
Venuka said the teens beckoned to Atthapon, who did not suspect foul play.
The group started beating and kicking him. She got her foot caught in their Honda Wave bike, and the pair toppled over.
When Atthapon saw Ms Pla’s son Nirut pull out a Thai-modified .38 calibre handgun, he fled, but the group followed and resumed their attack.
Before Mr Nirut shot her partner in the back, she heard him say: “Why did you insult my mother?”
The young attackers kept up their barrage of kicks and punches, even after he was shot, before fleeing the scene.
When police arrested them later, the teens admitted attacking Atthapon. All were charged with premeditated murder.
Ms Pla, who was at an ordination function when Atthapon called wanting to deliver his parcel, said turning up at that hour amounted to harassment.
She claims Atthapon did not call in advance to say he was coming, which his wife Venuka said would be a departure from his normal practice if true.
Ms Pla also insisted that he was the first one to speak rudely.
However, she did not seem surprised that her son would decide to take matters into his own hands in such a brutal manner. “He is always telling people, Don’t do anything bad to my Mum,” she said.
Atthapon’s mother, Chalalai Sarakham, 50, said her son can be late turning up for deliveries if he has a lot of stuff to drop off. However, the other side went too far in taking his life, she said.
The victim leaves behind a young child, in his third year of kindergarten. “He loves his Dad and runs after him every day,” she said.
Mr Nirut also faces firearms charges.
A moment’s impulse
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| Danupol attacking Wattanasak on the road. |
Regional police nabbed Danupol (no surname given), 46, for stabbing Wattanasak Sanpittaya, 60, on soi Mittraphap 11.
Mr Wattanasak, owner of a Japanese eatery in the municipality, had gone out for a meal when he came across the offender driving his motorcycle, which bore no registration plate, on the wrong side of the road.
“Our gaze met. He was cross-eyed and looked as if he was high on something,” he told police after his admission to hospital with wounds to his throat and arms.
“When I left the eatery via another road, the attacker started following me,” he added.
“I thought I was in trouble for sure, so I decided to do a U-turn and seek help, but lost my balance. The bike overturned and the suspect started chasing and stabbing me,” he said.
Mr Wattanasak made it back to the eatery, where he asked customers for help. The attacker fled.
Police arrested Danupol at a rented place in the soi, opposite the spot where the attack occurred, after earlier posting a 10,000 baht reward for information leading to his capture.
Danupol said he can’t say why he did it, as he went blank before the attack started.
“I recall stabbing him, but not what led up to it,” he said, admitting he was a drug user in the past but hadn’t taken any in the past month. A police urine test failed to turn up evidence of illicit drugs.
Danupol said he also had been treated for a psychiatric condition, but didn’t go back to see the doctor, and stopped taking his meds three months ago.
Mr Wattanasak is now out of ICU. Muang police charged Danupol with the attack.
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