A Kazakh man was arrested on Thursday at Phuket international airport on suspicion of involvement in the shooting of a Russian national in the commercial area of the resort island on Wednesday.
The suspect was apprehended by Thai police as he was trying to board a flight bound for Russia, according to the investigative commander of the Region 8 Provincial Police Bureau.
Riding a motorcycle, wearing gloves, a jacket and with his face covered by a crash helmet and hood, a gunman approached a car, being driven by the Russian national, which had stopped in front of a coffee shop. He fired several shots from a pistol at the person in the driver’s seat, seriously injuring him.
Police retraced the gunman’s escape route using CCTV until they found a jacket, a pair of gloves, shoes and sunglasses abandoned at a spot near a housing estate about a kilometre from the crime scene. The motorcycle, allegedly used by the gunman, was left at a resort.
The commander said that he suspects that the gunman and the victim might be involved in criminal activities, adding that they will seek help from an interpreter during the interrogation of the suspect.
