Thread: Hunted man in pickup hits motorcyclist before killers gun him down

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011...-30148042.html

Hunted man in pickup hits motorcyclist before killers gun him down

By Pares Lohasan,
Nakarin Chinnawornkomol
The Nation on Sunday
PATTANI
Published on February 6, 2011

An assistant to a village headman was shot dead while driving and attempting to escape chasing gunmen yesterday. The drama ended as a double fatality as he crashed into a passing motorcycle, killing the rider.

The shooting took place on Road 42 off Pattani-Songkhla Road in Muang district's tambon Pakaharang at 11.30am. Police found the body of Machu Jaetae, 35, with two gunshot wounds in the head in his pickup truck. He was assistant to the Ban Tha Kun village headman. Three hundred metres away, police also found the dead motorcyclist, Nihor Nima, 60.

Initial inquiries found that Machu was driving his pickup with 15 tanks of live tabtim baby fish for delivery to customers in Nong Chik district, along with three other workers, when a group of gunmen on a dark blue Isuzu pickup with no licence plate approached and aimed a rifle at him. The victim saw this and tried to speed away, accidentally hit Nihor's passing motorcycle.

The gunmen shot at Machu twice before speeding away. Police suspect the motive for his slaying stemmed from either a personal conflict or was part of ongoing unrest in the region.

In Pattani's Yarang district, one person was killed and two others injured in a shooting on Friday at a Buddhist village. Security volunteer at Baan Koh Wai, Paisal Meesrisawat, said later the shooting was the second incident in which residents had been targeted. The culprits were attempting to create disunity among Buddhists and Muslims in the region, he said. Although the 30 families in Baan Koh Wai were fearful, they had said they would remain.

Following the discovery on Tuesday in Yala province of the bodies of a man, his wife, seven-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter, who were from tambon Khok Sator in Narathiwat's Rusoh district, Yala police chief Maj-General Chote Chawalwiwat said yesterday police had found a witness who could give information about the killer.

Police were now waiting for ballistic results. He said they suspected the motive for the killing was either the ongoing unrest or a personal conflict. However, a source on the investigating team revealed the killing was very brutal - the boy's body had 20 stab wounds and the 16-year-girl had a cut across her mouth - suggesting the killer hated the victims. The killer later fled with the victims' car and gun.