A man who claimed to be a police captain while threatening another motorist with a gun during a road rage incident was arrested yesterday in Nakhon Ratchasima and charged with violating the firearms law, police said.
A dashcam caught the road rage incident last Thursday in Nakhon Ratchasima. (Video grab via FB/ple333)
Udomsap Lomkaew, 40, was arrested at a relative's house in Chakkarat district three days after he was seen in a video clip stepping out of a white Honda Jazz while wielding what looked like a gun and proceeding to bully another motorist.
The incident took place on Thursday on Rama III Road. The video can be seen on Facebook at the account of "Ple333"
The Southern Bangkok Criminal Court approved a police request for a warrant for his arrest.
The clip was posted by Facebook user "Ple Joshep" who asked the online community to share the clip.
After the clip went viral, police found the suspect's vehicle abandoned on the inbound 347 route in Pathum Thani's Sam Khok district. The licence plate had been removed.
Police became increasingly suspicious after finding from the abandoned car that the suspect had a criminal record.
They intensified the search and traced him to his relative's home in Nakhon Ratchasima where he was arrested by local police. Also seized from his possession were a revolver and bullets. He was initially charged with illegal possession of a firearm, carrying a firearm without permission and threatening to harm others.
According to police, the suspect admitted he was the man in the clip and he claimed to be a policeman to scare the motorist.
A vendor of phone accessories, the suspect is said to have had several run-ins with the law before last week's incident.
In 2010 he was arrested for impersonating a policeman and a year earlier had been accused of threatening two women with a gun.
Police said they were expanding the investigation and would also search the suspect's home and a condominium unit in Bangkok to gather evidence.
The man in handcuffs uncomfortably posing with real police detectives is Udomsap Lomkaew, 40, allegedly the man who assaulted a driver last Thursday in Nakhon Ratchasima, while claiming to be a policeman. (Post Today photo)