A 18-year-old vocational student arrested for shooting at rival students during Monday’s violent brawl in Bangkok’s Din Daeng area claimed he acted in self-defence after they killed his friend.
The youth, whose name was withheld, is a third-year student at Don Bosco Technological College in Ratchathewi district. He was apprehended at his home in Nong Chok district around 3am on Tuesday.
Police also seized a pistol and one bullet.
The suspect is one of two students caught after the violent brawl on Monday evening in which one student was stabbed to death and three others sustained wounds. The slain youth was identified as Tawan Krommarin,18, a third-year student at Don Bosco Technological College.
Tuesday morning's arrest was made after police examined photos from a closed circuit television camera which showed the 18-year-old student firing shots at rivals from Technicvitthaya Vocational College during the brawl at an intersection on Rama 9 Road in Din Daeng district around 5.40pm on Monday, Thai media reported.
Before his arrest, police led by Pol Lt Col Kittisak Wimuktibut, investigation chief of Din Daeng police station, talked with the suspect’s parents. The student, who was hiding in the house, then surrendered.
The suspect confessed to having fired shots during the brawl, but he claimed one of the rival students had stabbed his friend, Tawan, to death and was about to attack him too. He said he opened fire in self-defence, adding he had bought the pistol from a senior friend for 6,000 baht.
Police charged him with attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm and unlawfully carrying the weapon in a public area.
The suspect in the fatal stabbing of Tawan was among the three students injured. He was being treated at Ratchawithi Hospital under police watch. He would be interrogated and then charged, police said.