• 
• 

Six people, all related, are now in police custody.

The five Nawong family members who turned them¬selves in to acting national police chief General Seripisut Temiyavej at national police headquarters yesterday were named as Krisada, 26, Tu, 21, Athit, 24, Somchai, 49, and Kittipong, 19.

On Sunday, Art Nawong, 22, was arrested at Khlong Bang Sue 1 Community in Din Daeng.

Suthisan police charged the five with the murder of SgtMajor Weera Sriood and obstructing a police officer.

Krisada told investigators his group had got into an argu¬ment with another group and they had chased each other until they ran into Weera, who was patrolling the area. Weera tried to stop the groups from brawling.

He said Weera hit him in the head once and slapped his face twice, so he ran away from the officer, who chased him with a baseball bat. They got into a fist fight until Weera's two colleagues ran up to help him. Krisada said he hit Weera with the bat, but never thought that it would kill him.

After the assault, all sus¬pects fled the scene. But fear¬ing for their safety, the five fam¬ily members turned them¬selves in at police headquar¬ters and asked for officers other than those from Suthisan to detain and interrogate them.

Suthisan superintendent Colonel Suradech Dentham said bail was set at Bt500,000 but none of the six had applied for it. He said the police inves¬tigation had found all the sus¬pects knew Weera well, but it was not known why they assaulted him.

Art, who claimed he did not take part in the assault on Weera but saw Krisada hitting the officer, had just been released from jail after serving three years for drug possession.

Earlier yesterday, Weera's wife Nitaya Chaliewkan, 55, collected his body from the Police General Hospital's morgue. His funeral will be held at Wat Phrasri Mahathat, with the cremation rite on Thursday.