The shooter and driver, their
faces covered due to their age, reenact the crime for police.
Boonlua Chatree
Four teenagers have been arrested for last month’s
shooting death of a 16-year-old on Jomtien Beach that also injured a second
man.
Pattaya police announced the arrest of the four boys,
ages 14-16, March 28, two days after Thonawat Ngao-ngam, 16, was shot eight
times in the neck and abdomen. Also injured in the 5:20 a.m. shooting
opposite the Mae La-oo Market near Boonkanchanaram Temple was 20-year-old
Suchat Jaemsawang, who was shot in the hand and leg. He was treated and
released from Banglamung Hospital.
Suchat initially feigned innocence in the incident,
saying he’d simply picked up Thonawat and was driving home when rival gang
members chased them and began shooting.
Police said the four suspects gave a different story,
saying all the boys were playing pool at a central Pattaya pub when Thonawat
pulled out an expensive handgun to show the others. The four, coveting the
weapon, lured the teen and Suchat to a spot near Jomtien Soi 5 and cut them
off, opening fire.
The 16-year-old gang leader, police said, claimed he’d
wanted Suchat dead, but that the 15-year-old he’d ordered to do the shooting
fired at the wrong person. Finally, just as the gun’s clip was nearly empty,
the older boy grabbed the gun and fired off two shots at the intended
target, police alleged.
The four suspects told police they went home and watched
the news of the shooting on television, believing they’d gotten away with
the crime. Little did they know, however, that all their faces were caught
on a closed-circuit television footage from a nearby 7-Eleven.
