An army ranger was on the run after his wife and her mother were shot dead and her sister wounded at their house in Sabayoi district late on Thursday night.
The shooting followed a heated argument, heard by neighbours, at their home in Rai Nua village around 10.22pm on Thursday.
Pol Col Kongthap Senathip, chief of Sabayoi police, and Pol Maj Gen Suriwong Somsong, commander of Border Patrol Police Unit 437 led police to the scene.
Two women were dead inside the house with gunshot wounds. Riam Sribang, 58, was shot twice in the head and found lying face-down on the floor.
Her daughter Chuthamas Sribang, 38, was also shot in the head twice and was found slumped at the door to the house.
A third woman, Om Sribang, Chuthamas’s younger sister, had been shot in the right arm. She was taken to Sabayoi Hospital.
Police found five spent 9mm cases and one unfired bullet at the scene.
Police investigators quickly concluded that the victims were shot by Pheeraphat Onchart, 37, an army ranger stationed in Yala’s Yaha district, and husband of Chuthamas.
He fled in a Toyota car with Songkhla licence plates that was later found overturned off the side of the road in front of Wat Bayoi in Sabayoi district.
He used an M16 rifle to commandeer a local resident’s motorcycle and continue his escape, according to police.
Police said the shooting was motivated by jealousy. The ranger went to the house to see his wife, and the couple had a heated quarrel.
Neighbours then heard the sound of multiple gunshots, and the man fled the house.
Police have launched a major hunt for the man. His ranger unit in Yala has also been asked to help track him down.
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(Photo supplied/ Assawin Pakkawan)
