Published on January 18, 2006

A young man who was shot by a police officer after a fistfight was declared dead yesterday.

Corporal Thammarat Phanbua of the Thong Lor police station shot Natthapol Wongthima, a 24-year-old employee of Big C Supermarket, at the PS House Building on Sukhumvit Soi 71 at about 2.30am yesterday, said Captain Thossapol Burapakan of Klong Tan police station.

Police reported that they found Thammarat, apparently drunk, holding a gun in front of the building.

After 30 minutes of negotiations, Thammarat surrendered his firearm and was detained on charges of attempted murder.

After Natthapol was declared dead, his sister, Rungnapa Wongthima, gave The Nation a second-hand account of the incident based on a description from Natthapol’s girlfriend, Tuenta Tippichai, 26. She said the couple was drinking beer in front of the building when Thammarat, a stranger to the couple, accosted them for unknown reasons, cursing Natthapol and eventually throwing a punch.

The two men engaged in a fistfight, which ended when Thammarat left the scene, telling Natthapol he would return.

Rungnapa said the couple then fled, but Natthapol returned for his forgotten employee identification card. Thammarat had retrieved a handgun from his room nearby, and he fired at Natthapol once, missing him. Natthapol then reportedly rushed the police corporal, who shot him several times.

According to Rungnapa, a security guard urged Tuenta to leave the scene because Thammarat was a police officer.

Rungnapa described her brother as a forthright and uncompromising person. “I would never have thought a policeman would do something like this to another person.

Even though they had a fight, he should not have taken his life,” she said.

Natthapol had just completed mandatory service in the Army and was working at the Big C Supermarket in Bang Kapi. His family planned to bury him immediately after an autopsy.

Thammarat is being held at Klong Tan police station.

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