SURAT THANI: Two men - an amulet expert and a pub owner - were killed and two women wounded in a gunfight at a car park of a hotel in Muang district after attending a wedding party on Friday night.
The fatal shooting occurred in the car park of Bunjongburi Hotel on Liang Muang Road in tambon Makham Tia, said a police officer at 191 radio centre of Muang police station. The incident was reported around 8.25pm.
Police, forensic officers and rescue workers rushed to the scene and found the bodies of the two men lying there. The first body was that of Panuphong Suwannasin, 35, a popular amulet exert known as “Khunphaen Surat’’ of Surat Thani’s Tha Chang district. He had been shot in the head, body and legs. A pistol was found near his left hand.
About two metres away, the body of 39-year-old Wirat “Jane Thonglor’’ Sudphakdee, owner of Thonglor, a popular pub in Muang district, was found. He sustained gunshot wounds to his head, body, hip and right leg.
Fifteen spent bullets were found scattered over the area.
There were two women injured in the gunfight. They were later identified as Kansiri Suwannasin, 30, wife of the amulet expert, and Thanaithorn Luetheng, 20, of Trang province.
According to a police investigation, the four victims attended a wedding party at a building behind the hotel. Panuphong and Wirat used to be friends and later got involved in a conflict that lasted more than two years. After the wedding party, the two men went to the car park and talked for a while before the shooting erupted.
A source said Panuphong and Kansiri had been arrested in Bangkok by the Crime Suppression Division on May 15, 2021, on drug charges. The couple had been imprisoned. After serving his jail term, he ran an amulet trade online with more than 100,000 followers on his Facebook page.
Police cordon off a section of a hotel car park in the southern province of Surat Thani following the fatal shooting on Friday night. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)