Dramatic footage: Former Thai MP shoots senior politician
The head of a district council near Bangkok was shot to death in his car by a former member of parliament, his long-time political rival. The shooter called a journalist during a live broadcast, told her what he had done, and she instructed him to wait for the police at the scene. The shooting comes three days after a massacre at a school in the same district.
A former member of parliament in Thailand shot and killed a senior politician today, Monday, in a district near Bangkok, according to Thai media reports. In security camera footage, the shooter is seen approaching the vehicle where the district council head was sitting, exchanging words with him for less than a minute, and then raising a pistol and firing several shots at him.
The victim is the head of the Nonthaburi district council, Thongchai Yanprasert, 69. In Thailand, each district is headed by a governor appointed by the Ministry of Interior, alongside a council head elected in direct elections.
Yanprasert held this elected position for 22 years. The shooter, Chalong Riu-rang, 71, served three terms as a member of parliament from the same district. The two were long-time rivals.
Yanprasert's personal driver was wounded during the shooting and fled the vehicle. According to reports, a security guard who was at the scene said he heard shots and screams and rushed outside. He saw an older man in a black shirt hiding a pistol in his clothes, and when he tried to approach him, he was told, "Do not interfere."
Shortly thereafter, Riu-rang called a Thai journalist who was broadcasting live at the time and told her that he had shot Yanprasert.
She instructed him to put down the weapon and wait for the police at the location where he was, and at the same time ordered station staff to call the police to that location, until they arrived and arrested him.
On the way to interrogation at the police station, Riu-rang told a Thai news crew that he had approached Yanprasert with a request for help and was rejected, which is why he carried out the shooting. The details of the investigation have not yet been released.
In his interrogation, Riu-rang stated that Yanprasert had borrowed 11 million baht from him to fund an election campaign, and that he had approached him with a request to return the money only after he himself encountered health difficulties and heavy medical expenses. According to him, the conversation escalated into an argument, Yanprasert refused to negotiate and left the room, and he followed him to the vehicle. Riu-rang claimed that the driver pulled out a pistol and therefore he shot in self-defense, without the intention to kill. In the security camera footage, the driver is seen opening the door and fleeing, without any weapon visible in his hand.
The shooting comes just three days after a 14-year-old student opened fire at a school in the same district and killed nine people, in the deadliest mass killing in Thailand in about four years.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered the establishment of additional police checkpoints and stricter enforcement against carrying weapons following the incident, stating:
"No one has the right to carry a firearm, especially in a public place."
According to data from the Small Arms Survey from 2017, there are about 10.3 million civilian-owned weapons in Thailand, about 15 per 100 residents, the highest rate in Southeast Asia by a significant margin.
