Bangkok

Bangkok shooter granted bail despite drugs

Published

Sunday, February 16, 2020 13:38

PHOTO: Police escort Ekachai Jaruksin to hospital for examination Friday - Pornprom Satrabhaya, Bangkok Post

A Bangkok shop owner who set off a panic by firing dozens of gunshots on Friday morning was released on bail after his first court appearance yesterday. Forty-eight year old Ekachai Jaruksin faces charges of attempted murder, discharging a firearm in a public area, narcotics possession and using illicit drugs.

Police took him to the Criminal Court yesterday morning to seek his detention for 12 days while they investigate the case. But the court granted temporary release on 350,000-baht bond, on condition that he do nothing else to threaten public safety.

The drama began when shots were fired from the building of the Best Sports shop in a local market at around 4am Friday. Police found the man firing from the third floor of the shop. They cordoned off the area and asked relatives of the man, later identified as Ekachai, the shop’s owner, to calm him down. After negotiation, he surrendered around 10:30am and was taken into custody.

Police searched his room inside the shop and found two pistols, many rounds of ammunition, an undisclosed amount of crystal meth and drug paraphernalia.

The suspect told police he fired the shots in anger over family and business problems. He insists he had no intention of hurting anyone. But the incident caused panic in the neighbourhood, coming just days after the mass shooting which left 30 people including the gunman dead in Nakhon Ratchasima.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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Jack Burton

Jack Burton is an American writer, broadcaster, linguist and journalist who has lived in Asia since 1987. A native of the state of Georgia, he attended the The University of Georgia's Henry Grady School of Journalism, which hands out journalism's prestigious Peabody Awards. His works have appeared in The China Post, The South China Morning Post, The International Herald Tribune and many magazines throughout Asia and the world. He is fluent in Mandarin and has appeared on television and radio for decades in Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

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