A competitive marksman surrendered to police and confessed that he shot a 70-year-old British man because the expat “insulted and angered” him. Apichart Boonsawat, 32, turned himself in at Huay Yai Police Station Jan. 7, handing over the handgun used to gun down Neil Lewis Roger, 70, as he drove a motorbike on Soi Khao Makok 1 Jan. 5.
Apichart had not been at home Jan. 6 when 50 police and S.W.A.T. officers surrounded his house in Huay Yai about 500 meters from the shooting. Police released CCTV footage showing the fatal shooting as well as a 1.9-kilometer chase that preceded it. The video showed Roger fleeing a white vehicle on Soi Chaiyapruek with unknown equipment tied to the roof.
The chase moved on to Sukhumvit Road and then on the Huay Yai street where the vehicle cut off the motorbike and stopped with Apichart shooting the older man four times in the back as he tried to flee. Police, with some playing with a drone overhead, waiting for three hours outside Apichart’s house before realizing he wasn’t home.
An arrest warrant had been issued charging Apichart with murder and carrying a gun in public. In his statement released by police, Apichart, an acclaimed marksman who has won numerous competitions for precision shooting and legally owned the gun he used, said he had been waiting to turn on Soi Chaiyapreuk when Roger allegedly honked his motorbike horn and banged on Apichart’s car, yelling at him to turn.
The suspect said he stopped the vehicle to talk to Roger only to get into a fierce argument, with Roger taking off on his bike. Apichart pursued, cut off the Brit and shot him four times in the back “because he insulted and angered me, causing me to go into a state of rage.”
Apichart was scheduled to be taken for arraignment at the Pattaya Court Monday and was being held without bail. The 70-year-old Briton’s 38-year-old wife, Thitiphan Kummalard, said he had just returned from the United Kingdom Jan. 4 and had gone out drinking on Jan. 5. Authorities said he had been living in Thailand for about 20 years.
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