Police arrest motorbike hit-man

PHUKET: A finance company employee was shot dead while on his way home at 8:20 this morning. His killer was arrested just three hours later. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station said that the victim, Aroon Yutitham, 28, was riding his motorbike from Phuket Town to his home at 8/4 Moo 1, Tambon Wichit, and had stopped at the intersection near the ST Hotel on Sakdidet Rd to wait for a green light. Two men on a blue Honda Wave motorbike stopped next to him. The passenger pulled out a gun and shot K. Aroon once in the right side of his chest, killing him instantly. The killers then fled towards Ao Makham. Arriving on the scene, police officers found a 9 mm bullet on the road near the victim’s body. Witnesses described the two men and were able to give police the license plate number of the motorcycle used in the murder. Just three hours later, 18 detectives from Phuket Town Police Station surrounded a house at 84/134 Moo 6, Moo Baan Eravadee 1, on Sakdidet Rd and arrested the alleged gunman, Mano Boonkeua, 31. He confessed to the shooting. “Mano has confessed to the police that he and a friend, Hin, from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, decided to kill Aroon because they had had many problems with him over a long period of time – private conflicts and problems over a woman. “After they shot him, they separated and Hin took the gun with him,” Maj Sanya added. Questioning of Mano continues in an effort to track down his accomplice and the gun.