Teen shoots dead rival with 800 baht gun in central Thailand

A Thai teenager used a gun he ordered from the Internet for 800 baht to shoot dead his rival in Samut Prakan province in central Thailand on Friday morning.

The 17 year old culprit, Champ, killed 28 year old Kittisak, a YouTuber and former vocational student, with a single gunshot wound to the chest through his back at his own home in Phra Pin Village in Mueang district at 12.30am.

After Kittisak was found dead, officers at Mueang Samut Prakan Police Station used CCTV footage and evidence from the scene to identify the culprit, Champ, a 17 year old vocational student studying in Bangkok.

After the incident, Champ was nowhere to be found, so police “pressured” his parents to locate him and bring him into the station to surrender within two days.

After two days, Champ’s parents rang the police and told them the address of a friend’s house where Champ was staying, inthe Phra Pradaeng district, along with the firearm and motorbike used on the night of the fatal shooting.

Police arrested Champ under suspicion of murder and seized a Thai-made 9mm gun loaded with ammunition, the clothes he was wearing on Friday and his motorbike.

During interrogation, Champ informed police of his motivations for killing Kittisak. Champ said that in November last year, Kittisak slapped him in the face, and he grew to resent him.

As time went on, Champ’s bitter resentment over the slap grew, until he ordered a gun for 800 baht from the Internet and ambushed Kittisak at his own home in the dead of night.

Gun crime is rife in Thailand, consistently making headlines every day. Recently, gang crime and gun crime among vocational college students have been on the rise.

It is notoriously easy to get a gun in Thailand, via the Internet or even at markets, for a cheap price.

Just three weeks ago, an amateur gunmaker confessed to the police that he bought gun parts through Lazada and learned how to make weapons on YouTube.