The recent point-blank attempted shooting of a Chonburi official serves as a jarring reminder of just how dirty local politics can get sometimes.
Paiboon Pansanit – chief executive of Chonburi’s Borthong sub-district municipality and the right hand man of Chonburi godfather Somchai Khunploem, aka “Kamnam Poh” – was shot at seven times last week while he was reversing a Ford SUV in a parking lot of Chonburi Hospital. The gunman fired shots at the vehicle at point-blank range before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle with an accomplice – and the whole thing was caught on CCTV.
Paiboon miraculously escaped death due to the bulletproof windows of the car that Sonthaya Khunploem, Culture Minister and a son of Kamnam Poh, lent to him. Paiboon said that Sonthaya let him borrow his car because the Culture Minister was aware of an assassination plot.
Paiboon described the culprit as a thin man who was 40 years old, stood roughly at 170 centimeters and employed an 11-mm silent pistol in the shooting. The incident happened after Paiboon dropped by at Chonburi Hospital to visit Kamnam Poh, who was arrested on a murder charge in January, spent 10 minutes in a Chonburi prison and wound up in a VIP room at the hospital.
Paiboon told reporters that he did not know the assassin or the person behind the murder attempt. Speaking to Channel 3, police speculated that a personal conflict might precipitate the assassination attempt, as there was a rumor that one of Paiboon’s subordinates had killed a son of a local influential businessperson.
The video of the assassination attempt is below.
