KHON KAEN: Police have applied for court arrest warrants for two men for the fatal shooting of a businessman near the entrance to Khon Kaen airport on Sunday.
Pol Maj Gen Noppakao Sommanas, commander of Khon Kaen police, on Tuesday said investigators at Ban Ped had sought arrest warrants for two suspects he named only as Mr Ko and Mr Benz. Investigators believed they had clear evidence that the two men fired the gunshots that killed 40-year-old Phanom Thiprattanamonkhol, he said.
The two suspects face charges of colluding in theft, murder and illegal possession of firearms and using them in a public area without sound reason.
Phanom, a mobile phone businessman in Khon Kaen, was murdered on the road near the entrance of Khon Kaen airport early Sunday morning. He was shot in the back, with a bullet exiting through his right chest, and twice in his stomach
Police earlier said three men were involved.
Pol Maj Gen Noppakao said the slain man and his killers knew each other. One attacker was involved in illicit drugs and had fled to a neigbhouring country. He would occasionally cross the border back to Thailand and stay in the Ban Ped area.
Prior to the murder, the victim and his killers had made an appointment about a car deal, the provincial police chief said.
Investigators believed the shooting was motivated by a conflict over the purchase of a pickup truck. After shooting Phanom, his killers left in a pickup truck driven by an accomplice. The suspects had reportedly left Thailand across the Mekong River from Ubon Ratchathani province.
Police had clear evidence that Mr Ko and Mr Benz were the two gunmen, Pol Maj Gen Noppakao said.
A case was also being compiled against the person who drove the getaway vehicle, he said.