A 50-year-old man has committed suicide and shooting and killing one police officer and wounding another during a family hostage drama at a home in Bang Bon district, Bangkok, early Sunday morning.
Bangkok Metropolitan Police were called to a building on Rama II Road in Bang Bon district at 9.45pm on Saturday after being informed that a deranged gunman was holding his family members hostage.
Pol Lt Col Kittichon Janyarom, 59, deputy chief of Tha Kham police station, and his team approached the building to open negotiations.
Upon entering the building the man holding his family hostage at gunpoint shot and killed Pol Lt Col Kittichon with three shots to his chest, the then shot at a police senior sergeant major who was injured in the leg and managed to take cover.
After the police officer was killed and another wounded the other responding officers stormed the building. On the first floor they found the family members from the home, including a 15-year-old girl who had been hit in the face with a gun by the assailant.
The assailant hand moved up to the second floor of the building and barricade himself and threatened to kill anyone who approached.
The mans 26-year-old son told police that his father had four guns including a shotgun as well as ammunition upstairs. He also told police his father suffered from schizophrenia, and had failed to take his prescribed medications for a year.
The negotiation with the man went on through the night and police told neighbours to stay indoors for their own safety while they were trying to calm the gunman down.
At approximately 5:30 am a Police SWAT team fired tear gas into the second floor of the building where the man had barricaded himself and a short gunfight irrupted. Police heard the man yelling and screaming telling them to stay away, they then heard a single gunshot from the second floor and then silence.
The police proceeded up the stairs and found the man dead on the mezzanine. The gunman, 50, was identified only as Boonma
Source: Bangkok Post
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