SAMUT PRAKAN — A man died last night when bullets were sprayed instead of water during a Songkran celebration in southern metro Bangkok’s Phra Pradaeng area.
During the water festival celebrated by the Mon community in Samut Prakan on Sunday evening, Kittikorn Kaewprung, 25, was shot to death during the water fight by a man in a pick-up truck. Two of his friends were injured.
“We already know who the gunman is,” police Maj. Gen. Thammanoon Trithophayaphong said Monday. “We are now preparing to seek an arrest warrant for the charge of murder.”
Witnesses told police Kittikorn and his two friends were drunk when they sexually harassed a woman on a pick-up truck as it passed the entrance of Soi Suksawat 64. Another man in the truck became angry, drew a .38-caliber pistol and shot all three of them.
The other two men, 21-year-old Jinnawat Kaewcheun and a 24-year-old Myanmar man identified only as Mong, are in stable condition.
Phra Pradaeng’s Songkran, also known as Songkran Paklat, is a traditional New Year festival of the Thai Raman, or ethnic Mon, living in Samut Prakan. It’s usually held about a week after the Thai New Year festival.
