PATTAYA: A 32-year-old man high on methamphetamine threatened a female toy-shop employee at knifepoint on Tuesday afternoon near Pattaya before police stormed the store and rescued her.
At 4:36 p.m. on September 29th, Police Senior Sergeant Major Chanchai Sanguansaksri of the Nong Prue Police Station received a report that a man in a frenzy was threatening a woman with a sharp weapon at a toy store at 23/28 Moo 5, in Nongprue.
He alerted Superintendent Police Colonel Natthaphon Phong Suksakul. Officers from the patrol and investigation units, Banglamung district officials, and rescue volunteers from Sawang Boriboon Thammasathan Muang Pattaya rushed to the scene.
The incident happened after school. Crowds of students, parents and residents gathered to watch. Inside the shop, a thin Thai man later identified as Wirachai, also known as Foo, 32, stood behind the cash counter. He held scissors in his left hand and a utility knife in his right, pressing the blades against the neck of Suleeporn Nongyai, 31, a shop employee.
Police and officials kept bystanders back and tried to talk the man down by phone. He refused to surrender.
When he was distracted, officers used a spare key to open the door. Police Lieutenant Colonel Suphat Sudsong, investigation inspector at Nongprue station, signaled the team to rush in. The suspect swung the knife as he fought. Officers quickly overpowered him and freed the hostage. She suffered only a minor cut on her hand and received first aid from rescue workers.
The suspect was taken to Nongprue Police Station to calm down and face legal charges.
Chumphae Kaewma, 49, a security guard at a school across from the shop, told reporters he had seen the man earlier walking with shifty eyes and a hand constantly in his pocket, looking like a drug user. He ordered the man off school grounds and kept watching him. After the man went to a convenience store, Kaewma called students back inside for safety. The man then entered the toy shop.
Suleeporn said she had been sitting in the shop looking at her phone when the man walked in looking frightened. He said he only wanted to hide from the police for a moment and had done nothing wrong. He then grabbed a cutter and scissors and held them to her throat. She secretly called the shop owner and asked him to check the cameras. Police arrived in time.
Col. Natthaphon ordered a background check and tests found drugs in the suspect’s system. Wirachai confessed he had taken leftover ya ba (methamphetamine), and began hallucinating that police were chasing him, hid in the shop, and took the employee hostage.
He was sent to investigators to be charged under the law.