Two feted policemenshot dead

Two of Bang Khen's "Top Cop of the People 2006" police officers were fatally shot while on patrol by two suspects on Bangkok's Soi Ram-Indra 23 at 3.30am yesterday. While Sgt-Major Suriyan Buddhakhan took a bullet in the head and died instantly, his colleague Sgt-Major Wimol Wetchakul reportedly fired back twice and missed. He later died of stomach wounds.

A resident, Prem Kengkat, told police that he had been drinking with friends when they heard gunshots and rushed out to see two men in black on a motorcycle speed away towards a short-cut to Soi Ram-Indra 5. Prem said he had seen Suriyan's body and Wimol holding his gun and calling for help, so they called other police and had the two officers rushed to hospital.

The officers were chasing after two men on a motorcycle, suspected to be on the run after robbing a taxi-driver, and the suspects, facing a dead end, turned back and shot at the police, said their supervisor Captain Kolapat Makma.

He said the two officers had been awarded the "Top Cop of the People 2006" title in a popular vote by local residents.

Instructing police to hunt the suspects, Metropolitan Police deputy commander Maj-General Kridsada Phankhongcheun said that police had seized for further investigation a blue Honda Click motorcycle that fitted the description given by witnesses found outside a house in Soi Sukhapibal 5, about five kilometres from the shooting scene.

At the Police General Hospital's Forensic Institute, relatives tearfully collected the officers' bodies for their funeral ceremonies at Wat Srimahathat, which were held yesterday from 5pm.

Suriyan's heavily pregnant wife Wanna Buddhakhan, 37, accompanied by her 10-year-old son Tawiwat, said Suriyan had been a good and diligent sole breadwinner of the family who would willingly apply for shift work on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to make more money. Before Suriyan went to work his last shift, Wannas said, she asked him to take her to make merit at a temple, to which he replied that he wished to survive that night first. Tawiwat briefly commented that he wanted to be a policeman like his father and that he was very sad that he and his father had not talked the night before.

Metropolitan police chief Lt-General Adisorn Nonsee said the city police would give each officer's family about Bt170,000 assistance money from the city police's foundation, welfare fund and co-op. Since the two died while performing their duty, they would be posthumously promoted to the rank of major. He said that police suspected the gunmen were among a group of youngsters committing thefts and robberies in Metropolitan Police Area 2.