Bangkok teen’s fatal stabbing may have stemmed from bus seating dispute
A third-year vocational-school student has been charged after allegedly stabbing to death a 12th-grader on a Bangkok bus on Sunday evening.
Kamolchat Saen-aroon, 18, died at Theptharin Hospital after being stabbed about 10 times.
The quick-thinking driver of the No 180 bus immediately turned into the Tha Rua police station, where a 17-year-old vocational-college student was arrested at 6.30pm.
Tha Rua police chief Pol Col Sombat Kaenwichit said the younger student, identified only as Ae, was charged with murder and with carrying a weapon in public and without a licence.
Sombat said Ae initially admitted to stabbing Kamolchat because he refused to give up his seat in the back row of the bus.
Ae allegedly said he and his girlfriend had been sitting in the next-to-last row since boarding the bus on Rama III Road and he did not want anyone else sitting close by.
When Kamolchat boarded in front of the Customs Department and sat behind them, Ae told him to move, but he refused.
Royal Thai Police spokesman Pol Col Krissana Patanacharoen said Ae’s story changed on Monday, when he blamed the attack on their schools’ long-time rivalry.
Police Commissioner General Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda has ordered police to arrange a meeting of teachers and directors of both schools to try and prevent further violence.