Ex-home owner surrenders

Ex-home owner surrenders

The dispossessed former owner of a house who is accused of fatally shooting the new owner at a housing estate in Pathum Thani on Tuesday afternoon later surrendered to the police that night.

The initial charges against the suspect include murder, attempted harm to officers on duty, and firearms offences.

Decha Phayakkha, 66, gave himself up at 7.54pm, surrendering to local police and a special operations squad that had surrounded the house on Rangsit-Nakhon Nayok Road in tambon Bueng Namrak, Thanyaburi disrict.

Mr Decha was taken to Thanyaburi station, where he was held in custody.

The suspect allegedly shot dead Kamolporn Donthong, 52, who bought the house from a bank through the Legal Execution Department, when she arrived shortly before 3pm to talk to him about moving out.

Mr Decha refused to move out and shot her dead while she was in the street outside the house, police say. Police surrounded the house, where the shooter had holed up.

His daughter was called in to help persuade him to surrender, but he refused.

Around 4.30pm on Tuesday, Pol Col Jirawat Piampinset, chief of Thanyaburi police station, asked the man to lay down his weapon and surrender, but he did not respond. A special operations unit had been deployed around the house.

One hour later, Mr Decha fired shots from the house as special operations police moved closer. Shortly before 8pm, he agreed to surrender.

His son and daughter and a lawyer yesterday arrived at Thanyaburi police station to visit him.

Pol Capt Sariphong Apiwan, deputy investigation chief at Thanyaburi, said the suspect had become stressed overnight, but calmed down when his children visited him.

He said Mr Decha would be taken to Thanyaburi Provincial Court, where police would apply to detain him for the first 12-day period of the investigation, Pol Capt Sariphong said.