Shooter spoils mums’ slap fest
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| A man flees the scene after drawing his weapon. |
A fight by two Chon Buri mothers to settle accounts on behalf of their feuding teenage daughters turned into a chaotic shoot-out after a supporter pulled out a gun and started firing into the crowd.
The mothers gathered for a one-on-one slap fest (as news reports put it). Video footage shows parents who gathered to support the pair fleeing for their lives as shots rang out during the exchange, which lasted several minutes and left three people injured, one of them critical.
The Feb 2 fight was sparked by a simmering row between two girls, aged 13 and 14, over repayment of a small loan, and was taken up by their parents on the girls’ behalf following a police complaint.
The gathering took place near the railway road before the entrance to Siam Country Club in Bang Lamung district. Shell casings from three different calibre weapons were found, among at least 10 shots fired in all.
Two protagonists, one from each side, turned themselves in to police following the shoot-out.
The first was Kittisak “Nut” Thongphet, 36, father of the 14-year-old, who brought along his 9mm automatic firearm.
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| Police at the scene. |
He said he pulled it out to defend himself after the other side started firing first.
Shortly after, the man he identified as the first shooter, Ekkachai, or Pao, 30 (no surname given), a member of the 13-year-old’s party, turned himself in, bringing along a slide shotgun with five rounds.
A man identified as Mo, a mediator between both groups of adults, and uncle of Nut’s daughter, said supporters on both sides were told to stay out of the fight as the mothers duked it out.
However, Pao, whom he agreed was the first to pull out a firearm, started firing, and the other side responded in kind.
News reports identified the teenage girls on whose behalf the mothers were to fight as Na, 13, and Bow, 14 (assumed names).
The girls were once friends but fell out when one asked for the return of a loan. Their friends took sides, culminating in online exchanges in which the youngsters abused each others’ parents.
The girls agreed to a fight by a local fish pond, but when the 13-year-old proved no match for the older girl’s strength, her mother, identified as “Amm” in news reports, stepped in and attacked the other girl by pulling her hair, dragging her on the ground, slamming her face against her knee, and stomping on her, news reports said.
The mother of the 14-year-old, identified as Giff (assumed name), said she found out about the attack when the other side sent a video mocking her daughter.
“I felt angry because I could not understand why an adult over 30 years old would attack my teenage daughter,” she said.
Giff complained to Bang Lamung police about the assault. Na’s mother later contacted her, and the two sides arranged to meet.
When they arrived at the meeting point, both sides agreed that Giff and Amm, the mothers, would fight one-on-one. However, their supporters started arguing and the man identified as Pao started firing.
Speaking to police, Nut said he was confident that he only hit one man (Pao, shot in the leg).
Pao, he said, pulled out his gun first and shot at him twice. Nut said he managed to duck and pulled out his own weapon. Pao was shot in the right leg as he ran away, but kept firing into the crowd.
Among those caught in the mayhem was Maew (assumed name), 16, who was fuzzy about the cause of the conflict, but knew parents from both sides had arranged to meet and “negotiate”.
She estimated there were 3-4 guns involved, and their owners began firing indiscriminately. “I was terrified and could only run and drop to the ground, but one of the shooters kept aiming his gun at me,” she said.
“I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender, saying I was uninvolved. The shooter turned away and fled,” she added, recalling her ordeal.
After the shooting died down and both sides dispersed, police were called.
Rescue workers tended to three individuals at the scene: Panicha (surname withheld), 36, who was shot in the left arm and required 10 stitches; Pao, the man shot in the right leg; and Thanyawan (surname withheld), 35, who suffered a serious injury to the back of her head when a bullet entered the windscreen of a Honda Civic she was in.
When reporters visited the scene they found a few other bullet casings scattered about, and bullet holes in a nearby shop.
Mo, the mediator who arranged the meeting, said the row should have been left for the teens to fix themselves.
“It is unacceptable for adults to harm children,” he added, referring to Amm’s attack at the fish pond. “If anyone’s child were treated like that, they wouldn’t accept it either.”
Gift, mother of 14-year-old Bow, said Na’s parents had refused to mediate following her police complaint.
Her husband brought a gun because he understood the other side would also be armed, too.
Police charged both suspects with attempted murder and firearms charges. They posted bail of 300,000 baht each.
Any boxing ring will do
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| A policeman puts the wall back together. |
A former rural boxer high on meth called on his training to break a block wall in a police holding cell, though it didn’t get him any closer to freedom.
Police in Udon Thani nabbed suspect “S”, 33, a former kickboxer well known in his day, for stealing 600 baht from a grocery store in Nong Phai sub-district, Muang, on Jan 29.
The store’s CCTV captured him in the act, and police with long memories say they recognised S “instantly” when they saw the clip, said Non Sung sub-district police deputy inspector Pol Lt Col Udomchok Singhakulsiri.
S used to bet on fights at local festivals and events and was no mean boxer himself, he said. However, he appears to have fallen on hard times.
When police caught up with S at his home on Jan 30, he was sitting outside taking speed pills.
At the station he started acting erratically and spoke incoherently — exhibiting the signs of a man possessed, news reports said — so police placed him in a holding cell.
S, who was hallucinating, imagined he was once again back in the boxing ring. CCTV footage showed him shadowboxing in his empty cell, complete with knee strikes and elbow strikes.
He also performed a boxing dance including a wai kru ceremony. In an impassioned moment he kicked the walled toilet area inside the cell, breaking a concrete block.
Police decided that intervening might bring danger to both parties, so just watched from outside the cell. “As long as he wasn’t hurting himself, we left him to it,” Pol Lt Col Udomchok said.
The next day, as the effects of the meth wore off, S regained his senses and apologised.
Police forgave him and learned that he had been boxing since the age of 13 and stopped at 20.
After that, he dropped out of the boxing scene, before being nabbed for the theft.
Officers said they would not bring charges for damaging the block wall and would repair it themselves.
“He feels remorseful and acted under the influence,” Pol Lt Col Udomchok said. S was charged with theft and drugs offences.
Hi-yo Silver, away!
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| A squatter tries to flee on horseback. |
A squatter in Chon Buri tried to flee a confrontation with police and personnel from a nearby naval base on horseback, forcing police to give chase.
Sattahip police on Feb 3 turned up at a makeshift shelter which a family of squatters had built on private land after they flouted a court order booting them off the site.
The family claimed squatter’s rights over the land, on which they had built the shelter, toilet, a vegetable garden, and were raising three horses.
The owner had earlier gone to court to evict suspects Phonpong, 42, Rahat, 41 (no surnames given), and their daughter B (assumed name), 16, but they ignored the order.
News reports say they threatened police with a chainsaw the first time they turned up at the site in Village 8 of Bang Saray in Sattahip district.
After being charged with trespass and released on bail, they went back to squatting on the land, forcing police to return.
Police negotiated for hours, without success. Sattahip police chief Pol Col Thanapol Klinkaesorn feared officers would need support so contacted the naval base.
Capt Sophon Kowit-isriya, commander of the 2nd Naval Police Battalion, sent over 15 naval police armed with guns, shields, and batons to surround the area.
Phonpong made a dash for it on one of his horses, though police were able to catch him. That led to further talks, and his eventual surrender.
Phonpong is in a relationship with Rahat, who has a daughter, A, from a previous relationship, reports said.
They were charged with flouting the court order, after the earlier arrests for trespass. The case continues.
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