ع
Nonthaburi police arrested former MP Chalong Riewrang on Monday after he allegedly opened fire on Pol Col Thongchai Yenprasert, the president of the Nonthaburi Provincial Administrative Organisation, and the official’s driver outside a government office in the province north of Bangkok. Nonthaburi police chief Dejrapee Kongdee told AFP that both men were taken to hospital, with initial reports from local outlets indicating the president later died from multiple gunshot wounds while the driver sustained injuries to his arm and hand. According to accounts compiled by Channel News Asia and Khaosod English, the confrontation appeared to stem from a private financial dispute between the two men who had known each other for years.
Chalong Riewrang contacted political commentator Anchalee Paireerak while she was broadcasting live on YouTube to admit his role in the shooting. The host reacted with visible shock, asking whether the victim had died and urging the caller to remain at the scene for police, according to a recording reviewed by BBC journalists. The former MP then surrendered to authorities and was taken to a police station where he was unusually allowed to address reporters.
At the station press conference Chalong Riewrang described Thongchai Yenprasert as a good friend despite their personal differences and insisted he had not intended to fire his weapon. He told officers and journalists that he had approached the president to talk but was pushed away with the words “I don’t want to talk, I don’t want to talk.” The suspect claimed the driver’s subsequent action of drawing and pointing a gun prompted him to shoot in self-defence, a version now under investigation by metropolitan police.
The incident occurred only three days after a 14-year-old student carried out a mass shooting in the same province, authorities reported. Patchata Yimruang killed his grandparents before opening fire at Debsirin Nonthaburi School on August 7, leaving six people dead and around 30 others wounded before turning the gun on himself, according to a Wikipedia compilation of official accounts and Reuters dispatches. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, whose party once included the suspect as a member, responded to that earlier attack by ordering stricter enforcement of firearms checks at checkpoints and in public spaces.
A Small Arms Survey assessment from 2017, still widely cited by Reuters and the New York Times in 2026 coverage, estimated that Thai civilians held 10.3 million firearms, or 15.1 for every 100 residents, the highest rate in Southeast Asia. Of those weapons roughly 6.2 million were registered while the remainder circulated illegally, the Geneva-based research group found, a situation that has fuelled repeated calls for legislative reform. Thailand’s gun-related death rate stands at nearly four per 100,000 people, second only to the Philippines within ASEAN according to World Population Review data.
Chalong Riewrang, born in February 1955, served several terms as a Nonthaburi MP and remained active in local politics for decades, public records show. The Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner noted that the 71-year-old suspect has a prior criminal history involving property offences, though details were not immediately released. Police told Thai Enquirer and other outlets they continue to examine evidence from the scene, interview witnesses and determine the precise sequence that led to the shooting on August 10.
