Thai policeman injured, detained after 24-hour standoff
Police Col. Rangsan Sornsing, superintendent of Sai Mai police station in Bangkok, mentioned Wednesday that Kitikarn’s crazed episode started Tuesday morning.
“His superior officer was going to take him to be treated at a mental institute but the situation got out of hand,” Rangsan mentioned.
Kitikarn then fired within the path of police who arrived on the scene, beginning the standoff.
Police evacuated and cordoned off the world surrounding Kitikarn’s dwelling as they tried a number of strategies to apprehend him.
Police fired tear fuel Tuesday night time and Kitikarn reportedly responded by firing a salvo of bullets. On Wednesday morning, a junior officer sang songs for Kitikarn in an try to calm him down, intermittently asking him to show himself in.
The scenario gathered nationwide curiosity with the hashtag “crazed inspector” trending on Twitter in Thailand. A self-described Rishi hermit touring from a temple in Bangkok arrived on the scene Tuesday night time and mentioned the gunman was possessed and that he would be capable of remedy the scenario in the event that they had been allowed to satisfy, crime information web site Ejan reported. Police didn’t enable the assembly to occur because of security issues.
The authorities’s National News Bureau of Thailand mentioned in a Wednesday morning Twitter put up {that a} bullet had grazed however not penetrated the helmet of 1 officer.
Thailand’s deadliest bloodbath occurred final 12 months when a former police officer shot and slashed to demise 36 individuals at a daycare heart. The nation’s earlier worst mass killing concerned a disgruntled soldier who opened hearth in and round a mall within the northeastern metropolis of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 individuals and holding off safety forces for some 16 hours earlier than finally being killed by them.
Mass shootings are uncommon however not remarkable in Thailand, which has one of many highest civilian gun possession charges in Asia with 15.1 weapons per 100 individuals in comparison with solely 0.3 in Singapore and 0.25 in Japan. That’s nonetheless far decrease than the United States price of 120.5 per 100 individuals, based on a 2017 survey by Australia’s GunPolicy.org nonprofit group.