– Nongprue Police were called at 4:36 a.m. on October 18th to rental rooms in Soi Khao Talo 9 after gunfire reports.
– Officers recovered more than 10 spent casings of 9 mm and 11 mm between two nearby houses occupied by relatives. A bullet had also passed through the iron fence of one of the houses.
– A 30-year-old man said a group of five or six people arrived looking for an older friend, an argument began, his mother was assaulted, and the other side later fired gunshots when he and relatives went to confront them.
– The group that fired fled before police arrived. No one was reported hit. A separate man said the dispute began earlier in the day with motorcycle engine revving on the road.
Nongprue: More than ten gunshots were fired between relatives and neighbors in Soi Khao Talo in Pattaya early Sunday morning, scattering 9 mm and 11 mm casings on the ground, but no one was reported injured. The incident reportedly started over a noise complaint involving a loud motorcycle exhaust being repeatedly revved.
Nongprue Police Station received the report at 4:36 a.m. on October 18th of gunfire at rental rooms in Soi Khao Talo 9. Officers found more than 10 empty casings of both 11 mm and 9 mm calibre scattered between the front of the houses of the parties involved. A bullet had pierced the iron fence gate of the house of the group that fired. The men at the scene, including a 30-year-old man referred to as Rat, were still shaken.
Rat told police the other group, five or six men and women, had come looking for an older friend. He said the friend had already left. They did not believe him and an argument started. His mother came out to stop the fight and was grabbed by the hair and slapped. He stepped in and the groups separated.
Because they are relatives and neighbors, his mother then walked to the other house, less than 50 metres away, and called out asking why they had fought and why they had hit her. Rat followed with younger relatives. He said a sister of the other group moved to attack his mother again. He put his arms around his mother and pushed the woman away. As they turned to leave, he said, someone struck one of his younger relatives in the face with a gun and then opened fire with multiple weapons, spraying more than 10 rounds. Everyone ran. The shooters left before police arrived. No one was hit by a bullet.
A 40-year-old man named Job, the person the group had been seeking, met with police later and said the trouble started earlier in the afternoon with a road confrontation in which both sides revved motorcycle engines at each other. He said he had not intended to rev at them at first. After he stopped to buy shoes, the other group followed and revved at him. He said he later learned who was riding and rode past their house to rev back. Later that night there was an exchange on Facebook with challenges to meet.
He thought the matter had ended until he received a call that shooting had broken out near the other house. Victims showed police video of the verbal confrontation and CCTV from Rat’s house that captured the moment women approached the mother and the subsequent shooting, as well as footage of a vehicle believed to belong to the other group circling Job’s house.
Patrol officers advised the victims to file a formal complaint with investigators at Nongprue Police Station. Detectives are collecting evidence and checking cameras to identify and locate the people who fired. No arrests had been reported as of press time. Unlawful possession and discharge of firearms are criminal offences; the presence of two different calibres suggests more than one weapon was used.