Khanchit fails to show gun

Police spokesman Pol MajGeneral Piya Uthayo said the national police bureau would not just rely on the inspection of a .40calibre handgun registered under his name, which matched the characteristics of the murder weapon and the spent cartridges found at the scene. 

“Police also have other types of evidence available for indictment,” he said. 

Records show that seven Samut Sakhon residents own a handgun of this sort and that four of the owners have handed theirs to police for inspection, senior commander Pol LtGeneral Harnphol Nitwibool said. In addition, he said, the police firearms registration division is considering 11 requests for the ownership of the same sort of handguns.

Meanwhile, he said, police would no longer interview Khanchit, since he had insisted that he was innocent and said that he would only give his testimony in court. 

 “I do not believe that anybody who shoots someone in public, in front of many witnesses, can escape justice despite the lack of evidence on the murder weapon and the escape vehicle. The [other] evidence police have now is more than available,” the officer said. 

He added that police had acknowledged the existence of a love triangle involving the suspect, victim Udorn Kraiwatnusorn and a woman, saying that bitter relations among the three had lasted for more than two years, and that police would not want to summon the woman as a witness. 

“Reports about the love triangle have hurt her enough as a woman,” he said. 

Police are reviewing remaining footage from a few other security cameras, while also secretly tracking Khanchit’s aides and relatives who might be in possession of the handgun and the vehicle he had been driving before the attack. 

Jongrak Juthanon, chairman of the Senate committee on police affairs, said yesterday that Parliament should not grant immunity to Khanchit when further police action is taken against him.