Border patrol sergeant in northeast Thailand kills colleague

A border patrol sergeant in Thailand’s northeast province of Khon Kaen killed his colleague on Monday by shooting him five times. The incident happened at the Border Patrol Police Division Region 2 compound.

The culprit, 49 year old Sergeant Major Chuchart Pluakkhiao, shot and killed 44 year old Sergeant Major Pichit Saenkan, according to the Khon Kaen provincial police commander.

Chuchart then started walking around the compound with his rifle, and the police team shot him in the thigh to stop him from harming anyone else, Sanook reported.

Police are now investigating the incident.

This is far from the first violent crime involving cops, or former cops, in Thailand. In October, a former police officer shot and stabbed to death 37 people at a daycare centre in northeast Thailand in the kingdom’s deadliest attack carried out by a lone perpetrator.

In June, former cop Thitisan Utthanaphon, aka Joe Ferrari was sentenced to death. Thitisan was the police chief in Nakhon Sawan in central Thailand, when he led the torture and eventual death of a suspected drug trafficker in August last year. Thitisan was captured on video in a violent interrogation of a suspect in an alleged drug case.

The court ruled that Thitisan’s actions carried the death sentence, although the penalty was commuted to life in prison instead. He is sentenced along with six other officers: Raveeroj Ditthon, Songyot Klainak, Thanin Masawanna, Wisut Boonkiew and Paweekorn Kammaraw, who were charged with intentionally murdering others by “dangerously torturing.”

The six officers were also initially sentenced to death, but the penalties were reduced to life in jail because they sent the victim to a hospital. Another suspect, Supakorn Nimchoen, wasn’t charged with murder, but he was charged with “abuse of function”. He was sentenced to seven years of jail time, but the penalty was reduced to five years and four months.

Time will tell what further details emerge on the latest violent incident involving the sergeant in Khon Kaen.