Early morning confrontation began when the policeman on a motorbike accosted the 73-year-old woman while she was conducting ATM transactions in front of a bank in Nakhon Sawan 3 days ago. The fracas between the police officer and the woman’s 41-year-old son went viral while the injured man later appeared nationwide on Channel 3 TV to explain just what had happened.
A senior Thai police officer is facing criminal charges including attempted murder after shooting businessman Wisit Wongsawatpakdee in Nakhon Sawan in the early hours of Christmas Eve while dressed in plain clothes. This followed a threat by the police officer to arrest a 73-year-old woman, the victim’s mother, claiming that she was engaged in illegal money lending.
A violent incident in the early morning of Christmas Eve, the 24th December, has seen a senior police officer charged with attempted murder and a number of firearms charges after he shot a Thai man standing guard for his elderly mother as she used an ATM machine after the son attacked him for grabbing her.
On Thursday, a police spokesman, Police Colonel Kritsana Pattanacharoen, said senior police authorities had received a report in respect of the incident which was the subject of a police complaint made by 41-year-old meatball business operator, Mr Wisit, to the police following treatment in hospital for his injuries.
Video footage of the altercation
Video footage of the incident has emerged which assisted police enquiries into the matter. The footage shows the brawl that developed between the two men in full flight.
It began when the victim’s 73-year-old mother was conducting ATM transactions near the Krung Thai bank branch on the Matulee road in the Pak Nampho area of Nakhon Sawan on Tuesday morning.
As she was doing so, her son Mr Wisit, was sitting in a car to keep an eye on his mother. A man arrived on a motorbike and was seen interacting with the Thai woman. This is when Mr Wisit got out of the car and stood near a closed coffee station making his presence known.
Businessman told Thai TV that the man who accosted his mother looked uncomfortable and frustrated
Mr Wisit later told a Channel 3 TV show that he observed that the man had an uncomfortable posture and appeared to be frustrated. He then got on his motorbike and left the scene.
However, he returned 5 minutes later and approached the older woman again saying that he was aware that her occupation was one of illegal money lending. He also told the shocked woman that he was a police officer.
Asked policemen to produce ID
Mr Wisit said he heard the officer’s comments fully and then intervened. He asked the policeman to produce his police identification card. He refused to do so.
Mr Wisit said that he had observed that the policeman’s motorbike did not have a valid licence plate which made him suspicious. Initially, he was certain that the man before him could not be a bona fide police officer.
Victim says policeman attempted to intimidate him and his mother by alleging she was a loan shark
Mr Wisit said that the man appeared to be attempting to intimidate himself and his mother. He was threatening to call more police to have the woman arrested.
Mr Wisit encouraged him to do so saying that both he and his mother had nothing to fear. The policeman then went to grab the woman’s arm as if arresting her. That is when Mr Wisit hit him with a punch to the face.
Flurry of violence saw the officer produce a gun and shoot the businessman in his upper leg
This prompted a flurry of violence between both men which the elderly woman tried in vain to halt.
In the course of this, the police officer withdrew a handgun and shot the businessman in the back of his right leg. Mr Wisit then frantically tried to surrender for fear of being killed while his 73-year old mother attempted to placate the policeman.
Doctors did not remove the bullet
Later, Mr Wisit drove himself to hospital where doctors treated his injury but decided not to remove the bullet fearing it may not be possible to find it.
He later filed a complaint with police and insisted that the matter be prosecuted.
Appearing on a Channel 3 TV show just hours after the incident, he said that he was still suffering blood loss from the wound and found it difficult to sit on hard floors or walk too far.
Thai man feared for his mother who had previously suffered a stroke, terrified of another attack
He said that he was annoyed at a suggestion on Facebook suggesting that he had tried to rob the policeman’s gun from him and that this was what had provoked the attack.
He also mentioned that his mother had suffered a minor stroke on a previous occasion and during the altercation, he was terrified that she would suffer another attack.
Police officer also attended hospital and filed a report
It is understood that the police officer who has been identified as Police Lieutenant Colonel Pakorn Sengthong attached to Police Provincial Region 6 also sought hospital treatment after the violent melee with Mr Wisit.
He is also thought to have given an account of the incident at a local police station before the businessman.
On Wednesday, he was summoned for questioning by senior police officers making urgent enquiries into the controversial case. This was confirmed by Police Colonel Weeraphas Huaihongthong of the Mueang police station in Nakhon Sawan.
Charges were filed against Police Lieutenant Colonel Pakorn by a police investigation team
Police Major Samart Sarot who is an investigator working on the case, has confirmed that the police officer is being charged with attempted murder, the illegal possession of a gun and with carrying it in public without the appropriate permission or authority.
Press posse at the police station on Wednesday
The first indication of just how serious the matter had become came for the policeman when he reported for duty on Wednesday to find a huge press posse seeking to interview him at the central police station. He later drove off.
It has also been disclosed that a senior commanding officer will establish a fact-finding panel to see that appropriate legal and criminal action is taken against the officer, including disciplinary action.
Further reading:
Rough justice meted out by former senior policeman at a Thai provincial court as 3 die in shoot out
Thai police offer assurances to foreigners of safety after murder of French man by former cop
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