2 suspects arrested, 2 police injured in illegal gun crackdown
Two Thai police officers sustained injuries during a shooting while carrying out an illegal gun crackdown in Bangkok at the weekend. One suspect was arrested at the scene, while another surrendered the following day.
A 62 year old witness reported the shooting on Soi Sook Anan in the Kannayao district of Bangkok to Kannayao Police Station at about 8.30pm on Saturday, March 22. He stated that he was walking to a grocery shop when he heard five gunshots.
Initially, the witness thought the noise was caused by firecrackers but later realised that it was gunfire. He hurried home, warned his neighbours to stay indoors, and locked himself and his family inside before contacting the police.
Everything fell silent for a short time before he saw a sedan speed past his house, followed closely by police cars.
One officer stopped outside his home to ask which direction the sedan had gone, as it belonged to the suspects.
Kannayao Police Station officers conducted further investigations and discovered that the shooting occurred during a crackdown on an illegal gun-smuggling gang.
One police officer had posed as a customer, ordering a gun from the gang and arranging to collect the illegal item at the meeting point. Three suspects arrived to deliver the firearm but soon realised that they were being targeted by a police operation.
Another suspect surrenders
This led to a confrontation between the officers and the suspects. The undercover officer and another officer sustained injuries in the exchange. One was shot in the shoulder, while the other was shot in the stomach.
Police managed to arrest one suspect, 38 year old Mechai “Tum” Khankham, at the scene, while the other two escaped in the sedan.
Last night, Sunday, March 23, another suspect, 47 year old Theppitak, surrendered at Bang Kluay Police Station. He claimed that he had first taken his girlfriend home, as she was unaware of the crime, before handing himself in.
Theppitak disclosed that he met Mechai while both were imprisoned at Khlong Prem Prison. The illegal gun belonged to him, and he intended to sell it for 35,000 baht, offering Mechai 3,000 baht as a commission for finding a buyer.
Theppitak admitted to firing randomly into the group of officers but claimed he did not know whether anyone was hit. Police later confiscated six more illegal firearms from Theppitak’s residence.
The two suspects face four charges including:
- Section 7 of the Act on Firearms, Ammunition, Explosive, Fireworks, and Imitation Firearm: possessing a gun without permission. The punishment will be imprisonment for up to 10 years, a fine of up to 20,000 baht, or both.
- Section 8 of the Act on Firearms, Ammunition, Explosive, Fireworks, and Imitation Firearm: carrying a gun in a public place without permission and necessary. The punishment will be imprisonment for up to five years, a fine of up to 10,000 baht, or both.
- Section 24 of the Act on Firearms, Ammunition, Explosive, Fireworks, and Imitation Firearm: modifying, importing, distributing illegal firearms. The penalty is imprisonment from two to 20 years, a fine from 4,000 to 40,000 baht or both.
- Attempted murder of a government official on duty: Punishable by half of the penalty for murder of an official on duty, as stated in Section 289 of the Criminal Code, which is the death penalty.
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