Police yet to link Sutin death to reds

Police yet to link Sutin death to reds

Cops hope to talk to injured protesters

Police have not yet concluded whether the killing of protest leader Sutin Tharatin was the work of red-shirt members.

People pay final respect to Sutin Tharatin, an anti-government protester, who was shot dead on Jan 26, 2014. (Photo by Pornprom Satrabhaya)

Metropolitan Police Bureau's division 5 commander Suebsak Pansura on Tuesday said police would question injured demonstrators who are being treated at Vipharam Srinakharin Hospital about Sunday's attack.

Police cannot confirm if the attackers were members of the pro-government red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), Pol Maj Gen Suebsak said.

Sutin's group was attacked just after leaving a polling station in the Bang Na area where they blockaded the advance vote.

Pol Col Kanchon Intraram, chief of Bang Na police station, and police yesterday met to discuss the shooting of Sutin.

A source said police were gathering CCTV footage and video clips recorded by members of the public who witnessed the incident.

The autopsy showed the bullets fired at Sutin did not come from the same direction.

Police believe the shooting involved more than one armed man.

Social networking sites showed the image of a thin gunman wearing military camouflage, black glasses, a hat and jeans.

He wore a locket with the image of late army specialist Maj Gen Khattiya "Seh Daeng" Sawatdiphol.

Maj Gen Khattiya, head of the red-shirt security group, was shot dead by a sniper at Sala Daeng intersection during street rallies by the UDD in May 2010.

Nattawut Saikuar, the caretaker Deputy Commerce Minister and also a core leader of the UDD, said there was no evidence that Sutin's killing was the work of red-shirt members.

MPB deputy chief Pol Maj Gen Chayut Thornthaweerat believes the protesters were hit with 11mm bullets. The police only found spent cartridges at the scene, he said.

MPB deputy commissioner Pol Maj Gen Thitirat Nonghanpitak said the attack resulted from a conflict between two groups of people and investigators were examining CCTV footage taken in the area.

Shortly after the attack, a foreigner called Roy Nijland uploaded a video clip called "Suthin ying dtaai [Sutin shot dead] _ From Supalai park Srinakarin" on to YouTube.

In the 2:57-minute clip, which is believed to have been taken from the Supalai Park Srinakarin condominium, protesters are seen outside the polling station. Two gunshots and screams are then heard. Men then rush at the passengers on a pickup truck and damage the vehicle until a woman shouts "Enough!".

Sutin's killing has angered the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee protesters.

Many of them showed up at Ramathibodi Hospital to collect Sutin's body. They then took it to Wat Sommanat for funeral rites.

So far, 10 protesters have died and at least 571 have been injured during the political conflict, according to City Hall's Erawan emergency centre on Monday.

However, it is not clear if the number includes Sutin and there have been other shootings and killings since. Police have been unable to arrest any suspect in the incidents, including one involving an attack on protesters at the Victory Monument last week.

CCTV camera footage showed a man lobbing a hand grenade at the protest site.

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