Fight crosses generations
Two men are dead and two injured after a spectacular row in Tak province which started over a simple noise complaint.
Chorapong Songyuth, 50, complained about noise from a neighbour's house in Wang Chao district.
The young Hmong reveller, Sila Saeyang, 25, and his mates, spoke to him rudely, and Chorapong responded by throwing stones at the group.
Sila and his mates then attacked him, leaving him with facial injuries.
When the victim's son Chatree, 25, found out his father had been assaulted he rounded up his own mates to seek revenge.
They found Sila outside a convenience store, where CCTV vision shows them fighting it out before the Hmong man shoots a handgun into the air to clear a path to escape.
He flees in his pickup, but Mr Chatree and his mates follow in their own vehicles, setting off a brief high-speed chase in which both sides exchanged fire at the other.
Mr Chatree, who was shot twice during the melee, smashed his vehicle into Sila's own, which crashed into a fence.
Despite his injuries, he managed to pull Sila from his pickup, kick him and shoot the Hmong youngster several times at close range, media reports said.
The dramatic scenes took place outside a house where a Hmong family were marking 100 days since a relative's death.
Sila's father, Yeng Saeyang, 50, who was helping out at the ceremony, witnessed his son being shot outside the house and decided to seek revenge.
The shooters fled the scene, and Mr Chatree admitted himself later to hospital.
Mr Yeng, however, took his 9mm handgun to Mr Chatree's house in the hope of finding him there.
He found his father Chorapong instead, wandering about outside. New reports say Mr Yeng shot him seven times in the chest and head, killing him instantly.
That closed the loop on a strange tale spanning two generations in which a father was beaten and his son sought revenge. He killed the Hmong man who beat his father, but the victim's father, who witnessed the shooting, took revenge by killing the man who made the original noise complaint.
Police called to the scene found two pickups which smashed into each other outside the house where the ceremony was being held, and a third pickup abandoned nearby. Some 600m down the road they found Chorapong's body, after Mr Yeng shot him dead.
Sila was admitted to the same hospital as Mr Chartree following the shooting but died from his injuries.
Police nabbed Mr Chatree and were looking for Mr Yeng, who fled the scene.
Drunken dare turns fatal
Amnat: Wanted wife
A Bangkok man who tried to badger a friend into leaving his wife so he could claim her as his own was killed for his troubles after he pushed his mate too far.
Amnat, 43, handed himself in to Nimitmai police after killing Apichet, 43, with an iron bar. He said Apichet provoked him into the attack by trying to have his way with his wife.
Apichet turned up at Amnat's home in Khlong Sam Wa district late on Sept 23. The two were drinking together earlier that night, but this time he brought along a female companion, Chum, who was known to Amnat.
Amnant's wife, Patcharee, was at home alone. "He was drunk and making a lot of noise," she said later.
Apichet, who would regularly claim in front of her that Amnat was being unfaithful, urged Patcharee to call her husband home to clear the air.
He claimed Amnat was seeing Chum on the sly, though his wife says she doubted it, as Amnat had shown no signs of acting suspiciously during their marriage.
She called him home anyway. CCTV vision at the mouth of their soi shows Amnat wandering about 11.30pm, hesitating about whether to head home.
When he arrived, Patcharee said Apichet shouted at him and dared him to clear the air "once and for all".
Amnat insisted he and Chum were merely friends, but Apichet would not hear of it.
"Amnat grabbed the bar and beat him. Chum and I tried to stop him but we were no match for his strength," his wife Patcharee said.
News reports say a neighbour called out Apichet's father, Banjerd, who lives nearby, but he too was unable to help.
Amnat beat him behind the ear with the iron bar, leaving him soaked in blood.
Amnat fled the scene, but called his wife the next morning to say he was heading to the police station to hand himself in.
He told police it was a spur of the moment attack and apologised to Apichet's family. However, he said he had no memory of hitting the victim's father.
Banjerd, who was drinking with the two men earlier that evening, said they get along normally, but suspects Apichet's decision to bring along with the woman triggered the attack.
Patcharee suspects her husband was worried she would not believe his claims of innocence and hit his friend out of frustration. She denies Apichet had his way with her as Amnat claimed, suggesting he was still feeling embittered after the way Apichet had treated him.
"He used to claim in front of me that Amnat had been unfaithful. Apichet also told me once that I should watch out if I was home alone, as he would come around and make me his own.
"He also said that if we were together, I wouldn't have to work, as he would look after me. I suspect my husband was nursing a grievance over all that."
Police were preparing to charge him with murder.
Noisy neighbour loses cool
Kornuma Thong-on shows how she struck her neighbour with the pestle.
A Phitsanulok woman killed her neighbour after he complained once too often about the noise she made arguing with her husband.
Muang police nabbed Kornuma Thong-on, 44, after she fatally beat Somphong Sianghong, 45, at his rental place close to Wat Sa Mai Daeng. He was found in a pool of blood with multiple head injuries.
She and her husband fled the scene, but they were caught on a farm field nearby.
Ms Kornuma and her neighbour had long been at odds after Somphong complained about the noise from her place. He said he was unable to sleep, the din was so loud, and apparently, she and her husband argued often.
On the morning she was to kill him, she and Somphong argued again. Neighbours said they saw Mr Kornuma strike the victim with a long pestle. He did not respond but went back inside his place to sleep it off, they said. "We thought nothing of it because we saw them arguing often," one said later.
Somphong was to die at home from his injuries, though police called to the scene also found a blood-stained iron bar nearby. They suspect Ms Kornuma wielded the pestle and the iron bar to hit him.
One news report joked that she hit her neighbour thinking it was really her husband. Somphong was a general handyman, who lived alone after his own wife left him years ago.
They argued about 8.30am, she struck him, and he went back inside. Later, news reports say, she had her husband drive her away on a motorcycle.
Neighbours went looking for the victim some hours later, only to find him dead. They called police, who found the fugitive couple in a field close to Wat Sarsi Liam in Muang district. They were preparing to press murder charges.
