Killer told police that the man’s gestures towards him including eye flashes and throwing water in his direction caused him to descend into a level of rage and hatred that, shortly afterwards, he mowed him down from behind with a grey Toyota car.
Paiboon Sangsarn killed his next-door neighbour by driving a car at speed at him on Saturday after a personal dispute between the two men over a clothesline caused the accused to develop an uncontrollable rage.
The 56-year-old Thai man who executed his neighbour on Saturday using a car as a weapon has been arrested and questioned by Thai police at Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya police station in Ayutthaya province.
The man gave himself up to officers after a court warrant was issued for his arrest on murder charges in relation to the shocking incident in which his 57-year-old next-door neighbour was found dead on the road, 50 metres from his home, with broken arms and legs.
Victim was a senior engineer with the Department of Rural Roads working in Chiang Mai
The accused, 56-year-old Paiboon Sangsarn, worked as a motorcycle taxi while his neighbour, 57-year-old Suphan Yatbanthung, was a senior engineer working with the Department of Rural Roads on road project in Chiang Mai. The fatal incident occurred on a housing estate Krungsri City on Saturday last.
Angered by older man’s dismissive attitude
Mr Paiboon admitted to police that he had killed the engineer because he was angered by the older man’s dismissive attitude towards him.
He complained that Mr Suphan was thoughtless and impolite towards him and other neighbours. Mr Paiboon complained of his neighbour’s extended clotheslines and how he regularly blocked the roadway leading to his neighbour’s homes.
Triggered by 57-year-old’s actions on Saturday
On Saturday, it was a number of mocking gestures made by Mr Suphan that finally triggered the other man.
‘I was walking past the man’s house because I had been hired to drive a car to take some children to a football field. The man was watering some plants and flashed the water towards me, and gave me eyebrow flashes. I couldn’t have been angrier, and did it,’ Mr Paiboon told the police.
CCTV video goes viral showing the killing
The murder of the engineer was captured on a local closed-circuit TV system. The video of the horrific killing later went viral in Thailand.
It showed the engineer busy watering plants and cleaning up outside the entrance to his home near a clothesline.
Drove at the victim with accelerating speed
The 56-year-old taxi driver had been hired by a neighbour to drive his car and two young boys to a nearby football field. However, once the boys were in the car, a grey silver Toyota sedan, it was seen in the CCTV footage, reversing and then turning towards the neighbour who was bent down engrossed in his work in front of his house.
Mr Paiboon drove the car at him with accelerating speed. The car hit the victim carrying him with its powerful force in front of it.
The car was later found by police abandoned at the football field. Mr Paiboon had fled and was reported to be heading for another province before surrendering himself on Monday.
Wife heard the crash and came out to find her husband’s dead body lying mangled on the road
Mr Suphan’s wife, 44-year-old Pankamol Rassamee, told police that she was cooking inside her home when she heard a loud smash. She ran out and found her husband dead on the roadway.
She told investigating officers that the family had lived in the housing estate for 8 years and during that time her husband was more often than not away.
He had only just returned from supervising a road project in Chiang Mai, which took him away for long periods.
Appalled at the senseless and vicious act
She was appalled that someone could have driven a car into her husband over such a petty issue as a clothesline.
Police have revealed that leading up to the incident, there had been sharp words between the two men about the clothesline which the engineer had been in the habit of erecting near his home which adjoined that of the man who killed him.
Further reading:
Attempted car homicide as woman sees boyfriend with new partner riding pillion on his motorbike
Mother claims skeleton in a submerged car in Saraburi is her murdered 36-year-old daughter
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