SURAT THANI -- A 24-year-old police impostor ended his "career" and almost his life after he resisted arrest and exchanged gunfire with real police at a victim’s house in Muang district on Sunday.
Pongpan Siri, who donned a police uniform, visited a rented room in Soi Sang Arun in tambon Makham Tia in the afternoon to allegedly extort money from a vocational student who lives there.
Mr Pongpan did not know he would be met by police officers from Muang Surat Thani station who were waiting for him. The officers were acting on a complaint filed by the student that a man claimed to be a police officer had accused him of hiding kratom leaves and searched his room earlier in the morning.
The man demanded money but instead took the student’s PlayStation and a hookah pipe used to smoke shisha (flavoured tobacco) after he said he was broke. Before leaving, the fake police officer said he would return to collect money.
When the real officers signalled Mr Pongpan to surrender, he took out a pistol to threaten the victim and opened fire at the officers while trying to run from the scene, said Pol Col Sirichai Songwasin, chief of Muang Surat Thani station.
The officers fired back and two bullets hit the native of Surat Thani in the stomach, seriously wounding him.
Police took him to hospital where his condition was later announced as stable.
Pol Col Sirichai said police would further question the student and the suspect once he recovers from the gunshot wounds.