BANGKOK – A police lieutenant was detained at the Wang Thonglang Police Station. after being charged with murder for shooting a 30-year-old businessman to death on the Chalong Rat motorway in Bangkok on December 30.
Eyewitnesses from the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT) told investigators that around midnight on Saturday, they witnessed a Hyundai van lose control and crash onto the side of a motorway bridge. As a result, they stopped to assist.
There were two individuals yelling and fighting close to the vehicle at the time. One person was assaulted and was laying on the road, while the other sat astride him and held a handgun. They then took a step back, terrified by the violence.
They later heard two gunshots and witnessed the shooter get into the van and depart. As a result, they raced to assist the injured man. But after a while, the van reappeared, and the shooter appeared with the pistol, forcing them to flee once more. The gunman shot the victim many times until he died.
At 5:20 a.m., Metropolitan Police officers tracked and arrested the gunman, a police officer stationed at Hua Mak Station named Police Lieutenant Narongwat, aged 25, at a rental room in Don Mueang District.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Thananthorn Rattana Sittipak, Commander of Metropolitan Police Division 4, announced at 12:20 p.m. that Pol. Lt. Narongwat had confessed to all charges. The incident began with a quarrel with Mr. Kris, the businessman. The two had known each other for five months, ever since the businessman reported the incident in another case to the Hua Mak Police Station.
Following that, Pol. Lt. Narongwat spent time after work driving the businessman, who promised to help him settle a two million baht debt from a failed business. However, Pol. Lt. Narongwat did not receive the promised help. He was enraged that he had been taken advantage of. They quarrelled on the motorway.
Pol. Lt. Narongwat claimed that after shooting Mr.Kris and returning to the accident scene, he wanted to seize the phone that had been fallen. He shot Mr. Kris again when he realised he wasn’t dead.
He was charged with “intentionally killing another person and taking weapons into the city, community, or public way openly or without necessity and urgency appropriate to the circumstances and shooting dynamite-using guns without reason in cities, villages, or crowded places.”
On December 31, he will appear in criminal court. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police Division 4 will proceed with his dismissal from service.
