A motorcycle taxi driver has allegedly shot and killed two women and two children before committing suicide in what police suspect to be a jealous rage.
The three related shootings took place late Monday night at a market, a condominium and at a motorcycle taxi stop in Bangkok’s Thung Song Hong district.
Thung Son Hong police rushed to the market after being alerted to a shooting. They found a woman, reported to be a lottery vendor, lying dead suffering a gunshot wound. Soonafterward, a police unit from the same station was dispatched to a condominium in Chaeng Wattana Soi 6, which is not far from the market, after they received an emergency call about a shooting in a room on the 9th floor of the condo.
The police found two children, age 7 and 9, lying in a pool of blood on the bed. The younger boy was confirmed dead at the scene, while the boy who was still breathing at the time was rushed to Bhumibol Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police also found a woman shot dead in the bathroom.
Police were told by a security guard at the condo that a motorcycle taxi driver, who frequently visited the condo to deliver food, sought permission to go to the victims’ room to pick up a cooking gas cylinder. He said that the motorcyclist went up to the room for a while and later left, without the cylinder.
The 54-year-old then returned to his taxi stop, where he shot himself with the same pistol.
Neighbours in the condo told the police that the motorcycle taxi driver, identified only as “Somchai”, had been in love with the mother of the two children for about two years but,about a month ago, the woman disappeared from the condo. The driver kept arriving to look for her.
Piecing together statements from the witnesses, Pol Col Thitipong Peewatwuthikul, deputy commander of Second Division of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said he suspectsthe killings were motivated by jealousy.
He said that the alleged shooter first killed his girlfriend’s mother, a lottery vendor, at the market, then went to the condo to kill her two children and aunt, before committing suicide.
He said, however, that police are looking for the alleged shooter’s girlfriend, to try to confirm the real motive behindthe multiple killings.
