Police are searching for two men who shot two people setting up a “red shirt” political rally site in Pattaya.
Prachuab Sudkrathok, 49, and Somchai Deesawat, 45, were gunned down April 21 at a water table at the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship rally site on Soi Khao Talo. Prachuab suffered a minor gunshot wound to the leg and was released. Somchai, shot through the abdomen and in the leg, remains hospitalized in serious condition.
Police still have no leads on the identities of the shooters, who pulled up to the water table on a Yamaha motorbike and fired five shots into crowd before fleeing. Closed-circuit television cameras near the rally were out of service, so police have only a fuzzy image of the two young, helmetless riders from a camera 400 meters away.
Police are distributing this sketch of one of the suspects in hopes of locating him.
While police suspect politics may be the motive for the killing, investigators are keeping open the possibilities of a personal dispute between the shooters and one of the injured men or even the possibility it’s simply a random attack.
In any case, Pattaya and Chonburi Provincial Police are taking the matter seriously, holding two briefings on the case on consecutive days. In two interviews, Prachuab insisted he didn’t know anyone who would want to hurt him for personal reasons. However, as an associate of fugitive red shirt leader Arisman Pongruangrong, he could be a political target.
Prachuab told police he had just returned about two months ago from a trip abroad, but did not state whether he’d been in contact with Arisman, who has been wanted by police since last year’s red shirt uprising in Bangkok that left 91 people dead.
Somchai owns vehicles used to distribute UDD publications and had come from Chachoengsao to help prepare for the red shirts’ rally April 23.
