Gunman kills neighbour and injures young girl before arrest in deadly rampage in Thai village

Police arrested a Thai gunman after he murdered one of his neighbours and wounded a 12 year old girl in a village in the northern province of Lampang. The murderer was suffering from paranoia and thought the victim planned to kill him. He is now undergoing a drug test.

Officers from Jae Hom Police Station discovered the dead body of a 49 year old man named Patipon Chaiyachart, with several gunshot wounds to his body on Baan Jae Khon-Baan Tung Hang Road in the Jae Hom district of Lampang at about 7.30pm yesterday.

In a village near the road, a 12 year old girl suffered a gunshot wound to her left arm. A bullet reportedly hit her while she was standing in her house. Her family sent her to a hospital and the girl is now in stable condition. Details of how the bullet hit the girl were not disclosed in the report.

The alleged gunman was identified as 63 year old named Kasem Aut-air. He did not flee from the scene after the incident and surrendered himself to the police. Kasem claimed that he had a conflict with the victim for many years and believed that Patipon planned to murder him. Kasem said…

“If I do not kill him, he will kill me.”

Kasem explained that he saw Patipon park a car near his house. Then, he walked closer to him with a rifle and fired.

The village leader, 49 year old Wassana Jaiman, reported to police that the gunman was known to be paranoid and had an irrational fear that Patipon would kill him even though there was no evidence to support it. Wassana said she did not know whether the two had a conflict or not.

Kasem was taken to the police station for further questioning and a drug test. The charges issued against Kasem were not reported by the officers. According to his action, Kasem would be charged with intentional murder. The penalty would be life imprisonment or imprisonment for 15 to 20 years according to Section 289 of the Criminal Law.