A police captain won praise from Facebook users for controlling his temper instead of shooting a motorcyclist in self-defence when the biker damaged his pickup truck with a cleaver.
The incident happened on a road in Tambon Hua Rua in Ubon Ratchathani’s Muang district at 1.50pm on August 3, said Pol Captain Somporn Laosing, 59, deputy inspector of 22nd Border Patrol Police Division.
Somporn posted video clips and photos from his dashboard camera on his Facebook wall on Monday. By Tuesday morning, the post had drawn over 2,800 reactions and 2,700 comments and had been shared over 5,700 times.
The clips showed the unidentified young motorcyclist swerving his bike left and right, apparently to try to block Somporn’s pickup.
He said he used his horn to warn the motorcyclist that he wanted to overtake him but the motorcyclist became angry and tried to block his way.
The motorcyclist then stopped his motorcycle to block Somporn’s pickup and walked back to him to demand that he step outside, before hitting his windshield with a cleaver.
Somporn eventually drove away from the scene to avoid the motorcyclist , but the biker hit the side of his pickup with the cleaver.
The policeman said he was very angry but reminded himself that he was about to retire at the end of next month and so did not want any legal trouble.
Somporn said he has filed a complaint with the Muang Ubon Ratchathani police station but police have yet to locate the motorcyclist.
Most comments on the post said the motorcyclist was very lucky to survive that day, and many thanked Somporn for doing his best to control his temper.
