View Full Version : Hat-Yai Karaoke Massacre
Six killed, 2 injured following noisy drinking party in Songkhla
Songkhla - Three men and three women were killed and two other were injured when an angry neighbour opened fire at them while they were drinking and singing late Saturday night, police said.
The shooting took place at about midnight at a small pavilion inside the house of the victims in Songkhla's Hat Yai district.
Five of them died at the scene after being shot at their neck or head. Another died at the Raj Yindee Hospital.
The Nation
I'm told this took place at the house - in Na Muang - of a relative of one of those mentioned hereabouts. I half suspect that there was more to this than just a noisy party - that those who were attending the party may have been deliberately thumbing their nose at a near neighbor and political rival.
I heard that the shootings took place about 3 am. There is a feeling that the party was some sort of junket arranged to encourage the inhabitants of the area to vote for (a) certain candidate/s - perhaps in an upcoming local election and in today's Senate Election. What is definitely known is that this was supposed to be a night when alcohol was not on sale and when drinking was not encouraged prior to the Senate Election. One wonders if some of the ire of the assailant was partially driven by the impossiblity of getting any police action over a party organized by a family with a great deal of local 'influence'. One imagines that the party might well have been a 'celebration' of both elections so to speak.
It is thought that influential relatives may try to suppress this news for fear it will rebound on them. The report above really doesn't give any background to the case, and at midday in one newspaper the 'Breaking News' ink to this story was out of action. The newspaper in question would almost certainly have no bias for this family, but local reporters .......... . :cool:
I'm told this took place at the house - in Na Muang - of a relative of one of those mentioned hereabouts. I half suspect that there was more too this than just a noisy party - that those who were attending the party may have been deliberately thumbing their nose at a near neighbor and political rival.
I heard that the shootings took place about 3 am. There is a feeling that the party was some sort of junket arranged to encourage the inhabitants of the area to vote for (a) certain candidate/s - perhaps in an upcoming local election and in today's Senate Election. What is definitely known is that this was supposed to be a night when alcohol was not on sale and when drinking was not encouraged prior to the Senate Election. One wonders if some of the ire of the assailant was partially driven by the impossiblity of getting any police action over a party organized by a family with a great deal of local 'influence'. One imagines that the party might well have been a 'celebration' of both elections so to speak.
It is thought that influential relatives may try to suppress this news for fear it will rebound on them. The report above really doesn't give any background to the case, and at midday in one newspaper the 'Breaking News' ink to this story was out of action. The newspaper in question would almost certainly have no bias for this family, but local reporters .......... . :cool:
Eight dead in home attack in Songkhla
Eight people were killed by unknown gunmen who stormed into the home of a prominent doctor in Songkhla province, but officials said the murders were unrelated to the insurgency in the region.
Suthathip Thammachart, the director of a hospital in Songkhla province, and seven friends visiting her home were killed in the attack around midnight on Saturday, police said.
They said the reason for the attack was still under investigation. The health ministry, however, said it was confident that insurgents were not involved.
"The shooting was not related with violence in nearby provinces, a lover's quarrel or hospital management," the ministry's deputy permanent secretary Pipat Yingseree said in a statement issued in Bangkok.
Insurgents have been active in Songkhla province, although most of the southern violence is in the three provinces below Songkhla. In any case, Suthathip's home was in an area where insurgents have not previously operated.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=126263
The report says unknown gunman, but this may just demonstrate a desire by police to say as little as possible. It could also indicate that a negotiated settlement is underway between two parties. (What, you say, with 8 dead! NOT unknown, however! The greater public interest is NOT important!)
I'm told that shots were fired in the air shortly before the shootings - which supports the idea of an enraged neighbor.
(The idea that this is an area in which no terrorist activity has occurred is somewhat erroneous. Mobile phone transmission lines in Nam Mom District - of which Na Muang is a part - have been torched on two and possibly more occasions. That said, there doesn't seem to be much evidence that this is a terrorist attack.)
Papers are consistently saying the attack occurred at midnight, so my 3 am timing may be wrong. I doubt whether it indicates the time of hospitalization either, since this area is not far from several major hospitals in Hat-Yai.
The area in which the attack took place is one that has a mixture of both wealthy and ordinary citizens. It is quite a popular area in which to build big houses for those who can afford and who prefer to live a little way out-of-town. (Popular singer Ekkachai Srivichai has a large house in this area, for instance.)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=126263
The report says unknown gunman, but this may just demonstrate a desire by police to say as little as possible. It could also indicate that a negotiated settlement is underway between two parties. (What, you say, with 8 dead! NOT unknown, however! The greater public interest is NOT important!)
I'm told that shots were fired in the air shortly before the shootings - which supports the idea of an enraged neighbor.
Victim Suthathip Thammachart was the Director of Na Muang Hospital.
I was wondering if an automatic weapon was used. This is still not being reported, and doubtless it never will be. But we now know there were two gunman. One has been arrested. The other is on the run.
The main suspect is now under arrest:
Suspect taken for re-enactment of Songkhla murders
(BangkokPost.com) - Songkhla police brought a suspect accused of killing eight people including the director of Na Mom [Mod: AKA Na Muang] Hospital, Suthathip Thammachart, for re-enactment of crime scene on Friday morning.
Weenus Chukamnerd, 52, allegedly killed Dr Suthathip, her husband and six others when they were drinking in a gazebo at the back of her house in Hat Yai district on March 2. He was arrested four days later in Krabi.
Police are on hand to protect Mr Weenus for fear that relatives of the victims might not be able to control their anger and might try to assault him.
According to reports, Mr Weenus admitted to police that he killed the eight people because he could not stand her frequent night-time karaoke parties.
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=126362
On the grapevine I am hearing that some of the folks who were murdered were widely-disliked in the village. I'm also getting information that strongly bears out reports that the gunman had been driven to his actions by very noisy and arrogant neighbors. NO excuse at all of course, but I do think this truly indicates that if the rich and influential flaunt their power too much it eventually rebounds on them with a real vengeance.
There are times when I would also like to go out and do something extreme against those spoilt-rich brats who cruise up and down all night keeping folks awake with their ridiculous sound systems. It's obvious that most of these idiots know they can get away with it because they are the offspring of policeman, army officers, government officials and rich businessmen.
I also think we should ridicule the idea that most folks know how to cope with the constant noise pollution and other aggravations. They may know how to bottle it up, but it then tends to erupt with unreasonable violence:
Man surrenders for killing eight during drinking party
Songkhla - A man who shot dead a hospital director and seven others during a drinking party over the weekend surrendered Friday.
Vinus Chukamnerd, 52, contacted police to take him into custody from a spot in Krabi at 6 am.
He was taken to Songkhla to re-enact the crime.
Vinus claimed that he became angry that the eight people, including Doctor Suthatip Thammachart, director of Namom Hospital in Songkhla, were making loud noises during drinking inside their house located next to Vinus' house.
He said he had earlier warned Suthatip's family not to make noises at night as he needed to wake up early to work in a rubber plantation
He shot the eight with an automatic pistol at late Saturday night and fled to Krabi.
Songkhla police chief Pol Maj Gen Wirun Iampaijit said Vinus decided to surrender because he found it hard to continue on the run.
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30067476
Man surrenders for killing eight
Songkhla - A man who shot dead a hospital director and seven others during a drinking party over the weekend surrendered Friday morning.
Vinus Chukamnerd, 52, had his wife contact police to take him into custody from a spot in front of a market in Krabi at 6 am.
He was taken to Songkhal to re-enact the crime.
Over 100 policemen were deployed to prevent the crowd from attacking him during the re-enactment.
After the re-enactment, Vinus told reporters that he became angry that the eight people, including Doctor Suthatip Thammachart, director of Namom Hospital in Songkhla, were making loud noises during drinking inside their house located next to Vinus' house.
He said he had earlier warned Suthatip's boy friend, Trirat Choto who was also killed, not to make noises during drinking because he could not sleep and he needed to wake up early to work in a rubber plantation.
He said Trirat's and friends had been drinking at a pavilion in their house's compound for several months.
Vinus said he met Trirat and asked him to not make noise but Trirat argued that he was drinking in his house.
"It's my house, and I can make noise and it's nobody's business," Vinus claimed Trirat replied, making him very angry.
"If you make noise again within these three days, I'll shoot you all dead," Vinus quoted himself as replying back.
He shot the eight with an automatic pistol at late Saturday night and fled to Krabi.
Songkhla police chief Pol Maj Gen Wirun Iampaijit said Vinus decided to surrender because he found it hard to continue on the run.
He said he bought the CZ 75B pistol from a man identified only as Ping five months ago.
His neighbours said Vinus has been practing shooting ever since. Most of his victims were shot at their head.
One of the victims was his own brother-in-law, Boontip Desro.
Vinus said he did not know that his brother-in-law was also drinking there and he was blinded by his rage so he shot all people there.
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/03/07/national/national_30067478.php
Man surrenders for killing eight
Songkhla - A man who shot dead a hospital director and seven others during a drinking party over the weekend surrendered Friday morning.
Vinus Chukamnerd, 52, had his wife contact police to take him into custody from a spot in front of a market in Krabi at 6 am.
He was taken to Songkhla to re-enact the crime.
Over 100 policemen were deployed to prevent the crowd from attacking him during the re-enactment.
After the re-enactment, Vinus told reporters that he became angry that the eight people, including Doctor Suthatip Thammachart, director of Namom Hospital in Songkhla, were making loud noises during drinking inside their house located next to Vinus' house.
He said he had earlier warned Suthatip's boy friend, Trirat Choto who was also killed, not to make noises during drinking because he could not sleep and he needed to wake up early to work in a rubber plantation.
He said Trirat's and friends had been drinking at a pavilion in their house's compound for several months.
Vinus said he met Trirat and asked him to not make noise but Trirat argued that he was drinking in his house.
"It's my house, and I can make noise and it's nobody's business," Vinus claimed Trirat replied, making him very angry.
"If you make noise again within these three days, I'll shoot you all dead," Vinus quoted himself as replying back.
He shot the eight with an automatic pistol at late Saturday night and fled to Krabi.
Songkhla police chief Pol Maj Gen Wirun Iampaijit said Vinus decided to surrender because he found it hard to continue on the run.
He said he bought the CZ 75B pistol from a man identified only as Ping five months ago.
His neighbours said Vinus has been practing shooting ever since. Most of his victims were shot at their head.
One of the victims was his own brother-in-law, Boontip Desro.
Vinus said he did not know that his brother-in-law was also drinking there and he was blinded by his rage so he shot all people there.
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/03/07/national/national_30067478.php
Man surrenders for killing eight
Songkhla - A man who shot dead a hospital director and seven others during a drinking party over the weekend surrendered Friday morning.
Vinus Chukamnerd, 52, had his wife contact police to take him into custody from a spot in front of a market in Krabi at 6 am.
He was taken to Songkhal to re-enact the crime.
Over 100 policemen were deployed to prevent the crowd from attacking him during the re-enactment.
After the re-enactment, Vinus told reporters that he became angry that the eight people, including Doctor Suthatip Thammachart, director of Namom Hospital in Songkhla, were making loud noises during drinking inside their house located next to Vinus' house.
He said he had earlier warned Suthatip's boy friend, Trirat Choto who was also killed, not to make noises during drinking because he could not sleep and he needed to wake up early to work in a rubber plantation.
He said Trirat's and friends had been drinking at a pavilion in their house's compound for several months.
Vinus said he met Trirat and asked him to not make noise but Trirat argued that he was drinking in his house.
"It's my house, and I can make noise and it's nobody's business," Vinus claimed Trirat replied, making him very angry.
"If you make noise again within these three days, I'll shoot you all dead," Vinus quoted himself as replying back.
He shot the eight with an automatic pistol at late Saturday night and fled to Krabi.
Songkhla police chief Pol Maj Gen Wirun Iampaijit said Vinus decided to surrender because he found it hard to continue on the run.
He said he bought the CZ 75B pistol from a man identified only as Ping five months ago.
His neighbours said Vinus has been practing shooting ever since. Most of his victims were shot at their head.
One of the victims was his own brother-in-law, Boontip Desro.
Vinus said he did not know that his brother-in-law was also drinking there and he was blinded by his rage so he shot all people there.
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/03/07/national/national_30067478.php
One wonders if there are also other issues involved. For example, did the killer previously own the land on which the hospital director built her house. Was there some sort of land dispute or some sort of non-payment? Such disputes are extremely common. I have heard this, however. A few weeks ago, one of the deceased knocked the killer off his motorcycle while driving a car.
This appeared in Bangkok Post. (I sort of thought the gazebo/pavilion of many reports might turn out to be a fairly common-or-garden 'sala'):
http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=65373601ut1.jpg
It is said that some of the deceased are the children of policemen. If you or I were faced with a neighbor who obviously had a gun, we might well decide it was an opportune moment to knock the karaoke parties on the head. But being the children of policemen they probably lulled themselves into the false state of security that their 'power' and influence would be more than sufficient to prevent any attack from being carried out. I wonder if it was also one of this group who is said to have knocked the gunman off his motorcycle a few weeks back. (See previous post.)
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2008/03/09/john-denver-karaoke-sparks-thai-killing-spree-sunday-telegraph-march-9-08/
John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree
- Sunday Telegraph March 9 08
From Andrew Drummond,
Bangkok
A gunman in Thailand who shot-dead eight neighbours, including his brother-in-law, said yesterday he had had enough of the noise and their awful karaoke singing.
Weenus Chumkamnerd, 52, put his gun to the head of a respected female doctor and seven of her guests as they partied at her home in Songkhla Province, South Thailand.
“When I began shooting nobody pleaded for his life because they were all drunk,” he said after his arrest.
Weenus said he was so furious himself that he did not notice he had murdered his brother-in-law.
“I warned these people about their noisy karaoke parties. I said if they carried on I would go down and shoot them. I had told them if I couldn’t talk sense into them I would come back and finish them off,” he added.
Weenus, a rubber tapper, was arrested yesterday after going on the run after his killing spree on Sunday last week in the townn of Hat Yai, near the Malaysian border.
The doctor who was hosting the party, Dr. Suthathip Thammachart, 36, a director of a local hospital who was due this month to get an awards for her services to medicine.
Weenus short her husband, Trirat, first and she was the last person to be shot. Her husband who would have been the nineth fatality survived after playing dead convincing Weenus that he too had been killed. He later recovered in hospital.
When he realised he had shot his brother-in-law, named Boontip Desaro, Weenus said he was filled with remorse. He got his son to take Boontip to hospital, but he was already dead.
A neighbour said that the karaoke group normally sang Thai pop and southern Thai ballads, but one particular western tune could be heard often - John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/08/wbangkok108.xml
Wisarut
11-03-08, 11:05 AM
Thuis tragedy is due to the understanding schesm between the urban people who have moved to live in rural area and entertain themselves by makign a LOUD noise of Karaoke and the rual people who need to sleep and wake up early to work as rubber tappers.
When the rural folks ask those people from urban area to tone down theri noise, the urban people have retorted back that
"It's My House! I can make ANY noise I want, YOU RURAL Bumpkin!"
This kid of rude response have upset many of those rural folks live nearby ... and this has accumulated the feud to such extend that the metality of rural floks got SNAPPED and they recided to fire pistons to the heads of those noisy neighbors ... and they felt they have DONE the right thing as a response to those noisy neighbors! :eek:
REF: Matichon - 11 March 2008
My experience with URBAN societies in Thailand is that there is almost NOTHING that will stop some boneheads keeping the whole neighborhood awake with 200 dB (houseshaker - no exaggeration!) parties that go on as late as 6 am. It happens here, sometimes several times a week! This is definitely the NORMAL picture in Hat-Yai, and I can 100% appreciate why these high-handed hi-so urban fringe townies have alienated their more rustic neighbors. I often feel like killing a few of these arseholes myself:
URBANITE
Living with neighbours takes understanding
Published on March 18, 2008
Disputes between neighbours occur everywhere.
In the case of one rural community in Songkhla's Hat-Yai district, differences between neighbours led to a loss of lives.
Vinus Chukamnerd, 52, opened fire at his two neighbours and their friends, eight people who were enjoying a drink and playing music in their house around midnight. When arrested, Vinus said he shot them because they often held noisy drinking parties that disturbed his sleep.
Vinus said he had warned his neighbours not to make so much noise at night, because he had to wake up early to go to work on a rubber plantation. Vinus said he actually wanted to shoot only one man - his neighbour, who said it was none of Vinus's business, because they were partying in their own house.
The victims were new to the community. They came from a city and perhaps did not try to learn about the way of life in a rural community.
Can people of different cultures and lifestyles live together?
Pipob Udomittipong moved from Bangkok to an agrarian community in Chiang Mai's San Kamphaeng district seven years ago. He has worked as translator for publishing houses and academics while most families in the village are farmers.
Pipob found that to live peacefully in the community, all he had to do was be more patient with noise, especially during festivals, when the villagers hold all-night parties.
Pipob said he had to leave the village to find some other place to sleep during the festivals, but members of the community agreed that when there was no festival, parties would stop at 10pm, because everyone in the village had to wake up early, Pipob said.
In another story, Nual shared her experience of how a community rule helped prevent disputes. Nual moved from a rural village in Nakhon Sawan to work on a construction site in Bangkok.
"We all agreed with the community's rule of not making noise and disturbing neighbours after 10pm, because everyone needed sleep," she said.
Perhaps, a tragic incident like Vinus's case could have been avoided if other members of the community had been more concerned about the dispute.
Also, property rights need to be better understood to avoid arguments like: "This is my property, and I can be as noisy as I want."
Well, the law does not allow you to cut down a golden teakwood tree even though it stands on your property. Understanding our rights and duties to the community and being considerate of our neighbours' needs is essential to living harmoniously.
Subhatra Bhumiprabhas can be contacted via e-mail at
subhatra@nationgroup.com.
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/03/18/national/national_30068432.php
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