Narathiwat cop gunned down in suspected revenge killing
A police officer was shot while heading home on his motorbike in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district in the early hours of Saturday. He succumbed to his wounds a few hours later.
Police Lance Corporal Thanakrit Reugdee, 23, from the subdistrict Su-ngai Kolok Police Station was rushed to hospital at around 1.40am after a passer-by spotted him lying in the middle of the road. He later succumbed to two gunshot wounds in his right rib cage.
CCTV footage from a camera 200 metres from the crime scene showed a motorbike with two suspects tailing the lance corporal.
“As the motorbike got closer, the suspect riding pillion pulled out an unknown type of handgun and fired four shots, two of which hit Thanakrit, causing him to lose control of his vehicle and fall,” said Pol Colonel Pratchaya Paitae, chief of the Su-ngai Kolok Police Station.
“After the shooting, the suspects drove away without stopping,” Pratchaya said, adding that the motive of the shooting is not yet clear.
However, he said, one possible theory is that a gang of motorcycle racers may be exacting revenge on Thanakrit, who was tasked with patrolling the streets of the Su-ngai Kolok subdistrict where these racers normally flock to. Thanakrit had reportedly dispersed these gangs several times during the Hari Raya festival.
Pratchaya said he does not think this killing was the work of insurgents as they usually take officers’ weapons after shooting them.
