Pattaya police again are being criticized by online keyboard warriors for recklessly using their firearms after shooting at a pickup truck for failing to stop at a checkpoint.
The Rayong-registered Toyota Vigo carrying Ronachai Jewchuephan, 22, and Jirayu Mala, 20, stopped and made a U-turn into wrong-way traffic after spotting a police checkpoint near the intersection of Sukhumvit and Naklua roads July 3.
An unidentified Pattaya traffic cop at first pursued the truck on foot, then pulled his service revolver in an attempt to shoot out the trucks tires.
He missed both the truck and, fortunately, the many pedestrians and drivers in the area.
The truck got away at first, but the drivers were picked up later. Both men failed drug tests and said they fled due to fear of being arrested for methamphetamine use.
The incident, however, was caught on video and posted to a popular Pattaya Facebook page, drawing considerable criticism of Pattaya’s infamously trigger-happy police.
Pattaya’s police force has a bad reputation for being quick on the draw. Cops already shot out the tires of another speeding truck this year and, in 2015, one injured a Russian tourist when he shot at two teenage bag-snatchers as they ran away.
