Calmly dispatched, shooter's lament, thief repents

The Buri Ram ranger who shot his ex-wife's son dead before fleeing into a forest sanctuary last week had threatened to slay the entire family, his former wife says.

A manhunt by a 100-strong forestry, police and military force was underway after Pitpiroon Pirapop, 45, a forest ranger at Dong Yai Wildlife Sanctuary in Non Din Daeng district, broke into his ex-wife's home on March 13 in a fit of jealous rage.

His former wife, Kalaya Anthaisong, 37, fled into the bathroom after he forced entry to her house in Pakham district. Announcing his arrival, he calmly shot at the windows of two vehicles parked outside and her house, attached to a grocery shop.

Ms Kalaya said her ex-husband knew she had started seeing another man but could not accept it. He turned up earlier on a motorcycle about 11pm, demanding she talk, after she called off their two-year marriage a month before in protest at his behaviour. He had threatened her with a firearm and beaten her.

"When he turned up on the bike, he said: 'You want to quit with me so you can start seeing someone new, right? In that case, you will have to die. I will kill everyone,' " she told police.

She didn't think he would go ahead with the threat, but he returned an hour later in a pickup with a shotgun. Both the vehicle and the truck were stolen from the sanctuary where he works.

"I watched him get out, climb the fence in front of the house, put in the cartridges and calmly start shooting" like a hunter or marksman, she said.

Her youngest son and her new boyfriend, staying with her for the first time that night, managed to flee through a window. Ms Kalaya's son by her first marriage wasn't so lucky.

Mr Pitpiroon shot him in the neck as he emerged from his room. However, he spared the life of Ms Kalaya's bedridden mother. Ms Kalaya said he held the shotgun to her head but did not pull the trigger.

Ms Kalaya herself took shelter initially in the bathroom and later fled through the window.

The funeral for her son, Nathapong Anthaisong, 20, was held at a local temple amid tight security as Ms Kalaya was worried her ex-husband would return to finish the job.

A neighbour, Boonchu Sutthiso, 46, said he saw Mr Pitpiroon leaving after his shooting spree. "He reversed his vehicle and told me, 'one person dead'. He asked me to get a beer so we could sit and wait for his ex-wife to re-appear," he told reporters.

Fortunately for her, perhaps, Mr Boonchu claimed his house was locked, so Mr Pitpiroon drove off. He fled into the sanctuary, where a manhunt was underway late last week.

Road rage ends in death

A Buri Ram hoodlum who fatally shot a teenage visitor to the province says he didn't think the bullet would hit her.

Nong Ki police nabbed former jailbird Niwat "Wat" Tuila, 32, after a road rage incident in which he forced an Isuzu pickup off the road, punched the driver in the face, and shot at the vehicle as the driver sped off.

His bullet hit Krittiya "Cake" Krachapklang, 19, a visitor from Nong Bun Mak, Nakhon Ratchasima who was sitting in the rear of the pickup after a two-day leisure trip with friends.

Cake was sitting with her husband, Athiwat, 25, as they took in the evening air. It was one of their first trips away from home since they married 12 months before.

The group had visited a food festival and Red Cross Fair when they stopped for a meal. They resumed their journey shortly after midnight when Niwat, part of a group of five youngsters on motorcycles, cut in front of their pickup, forcing it to stop.

The driver, Thanakrit Srisang, said Niwat approached and demanded he lower his window. "He said 'if you don't open the window I'll shoot.' I did as he asked and he punched me in the mouth."

Mr Thanakrit, who had never met them before and assumed they were a local gang who liked picking on motorists from out of town, sped off.

Moments later he heard the sound of gunfire and Mr Athiwat raised the alarm, saying his wife had been shot in the head. They took her to hospital but she succumbed to her injuries.

Mr Athiwat said he witnessed the encounter with Niwat, when he punched Mr Thanakrit in the face, and saw the suspect taking aim at the vehicle as it sped away. "I tried to get my wife to duck but I was too slow," he said.

The victim's mother, Kwanjit Chaisri, 54, said Cake was a hard-worker who helped on the family farm. Mr Athiwat, from a village nearby, moved in when the couple married about a year ago. "Since then they had not been anywhere, until the other night when I saw Cake getting dressing up. She said she was going to the food festival.

"I didn't want her to go as I had heard that local teens shoot each other there every year, but she really wanted to see her friends," she said.

"She was young with her whole future ahead of her," she said.

Niwat, for his part, said he was out with friends when the pickup veered towards them. He said the Isuzu also revved its engine, further stoking their anger.

"I told the driver to stop so we could clear the matter, but he sped off," he said. He claims the pickup tried to force him off the road again, so he shot at it once with his .380 handgun. He claims he did not mean to hit anyone.

Niwat fled on his bike and hid the weapon at a friend's place. Police arrived to nab him the next day. Nong Ki police, who say Niwat was freed from jail just five months ago on a drug conviction, charged him with intentional killing and a firearms offence.

'It was just a light punch'

A serial snatch and run thief from Samut Prakan played the sympathy card as he apologised to his latest victim, whom he punched in the stomach as he made off with her bag.

"I didn't hit her hard, as she was elderly," convicted jailbird Thepnimit Neukeow, 40, told reporters after his arrest. He should have known better, he said, as his own mother had just died from Covid-19 and now his child was infected too.

Samrong Neua police on Tuesday nabbed Thepnimit at Srinagarindra train station in Pak Nam after his victim, Daeng Puapaeng, 60, complained. Ms Daeng lifted her top to show heavy bruising to her stomach, putting the lie to claims that he hit her lightly.

She took to the police CCTV vision from the company in Muang district where the robbery took place. The vision shows him approaching Ms Daeng inside the P and N marble granite company, which she had just opened for the day, pretending to ask for directions.

When she drew near, he seized her bag and wrested it from her shoulder. It carried her phone and 300 baht in cash. As Ms Daeng resisted, he punched her in the stomach, forcing her to the ground. The assault shocked Thais, who said the suspect showed brazen disregard for the elderly.

Four years ago, Thepnimit was caught for a snatch and grab robbery, and sent away for three years and nine months.

Released late last year, he said he looked around for work without much luck, before finally finding a job as a security guard. However, he had yet to get paid at the time of the robbery and had expenses to meet.

"My motorbike had broken down. When I looked up and saw Ms Daeng alone in the shop, I decided on the spur of the moment to rob her. I didn't target her," he said.

Police say Thepnimit has committed a string of such offences, including some since his release. He also preys on women. On Jan 24, he snatched a gold necklace from Duangwimol Prasert, 22, a young mother sitting on the back of a motorcycle in Muang district.

On March 9, he struck again, robbing Yanikan Yongchalao, 43, at gunpoint. He also hit her in the chest with his weapon as she resisted his bid to seize her bag.

Samrong Neua police head Pol Col Athit Simcharoen said Thepnimit, who also has a history of drug use, was preparing to go out and rob again when police found him at the station. Police charged him with robbery.