NARATHIWAT: A Border Patrol Police officer shot his wife dead and then took his own life using the same gun while travelling in a car together with his stepdaughter on their way home after picking the girl up after school on Monday, police said.
Pol Capt Phananphong Det-udom, deputy chief investigator at Sugnai Kolok district police, said the shooting was reported about 7.50pm. It occurred in a parked car on Pracha Wiwat Road in Sungai Kolok district.
Police sent to the scene found a 7-year-old girl in her school uniform sitting and weeping in the back seat of the car. The bodies of two adults were in the two front seats.
The girl was identified as Netikan Musikim, 7, the dead driver as her mother Natthanan Trakunphrom, 30, and the man in the front passenger seat as Pol Cpl Bunwat Trakunphrom, 28, the girl’s stepfather.
Pol Capt Phananphong said the mother was a music teacher at Sungai Kolok School and the stepfather a border police officer in Sungai Padi district.
Four spent shells were found on the floor, and there was a pistol between Pol Cpl Bunwat’s thighs.
An investigation found Pol Cpl Bunwat had first picked up Natthanan and then they picked up the girl and headed home together in the car.
On the way home the stepfather and the mother had a heated quarrel, which ended in tragedy, Pol Capt Phananphong said.
Her husband shot her repeatedly, and then killed himself, Pol Capt Phananphong said.
The car stopped when it hit the pavement, he said.