Two Dead in Market Shooting Over Old Debt Dispute
A decades-long friendship between two market vendors in Southern Thailand ended in tragedy when a debt dispute over 200,000 baht erupted into a shooting that killed both men at their neighboring food stalls.
The wife of the shooting victim told police that both men had been close friends for decades, each running food stalls next to each other at the market—one selling duck noodles, the other selling chicken rice. They had lived peacefully side by side for years with no serious conflict, though they had argued and even come to blows before, after which they reconciled. Recently, however, a debt issue had emerged that she was unaware of.
During the incident, the gunman sat eating longans at the noodle shop for about 15 minutes, watching his friend sell noodles, then walked over and shot him point-blank, causing him to collapse. Amid screams and panic, the gunman calmly returned to his own shop, smoked a cigarette for less than five minutes, then shot himself in the forehead in full view of other vendors.
The victim had been kind to the gunman, lending him approximately 200,000 baht after he faced financial hardship, with the victim paying interest monthly for years. Recently, the gunman heard that the lender had decided to forgive the entire debt and came to verify this. The lender told him he was only forgiving the interest, not the principal. This apparent misunderstanding festered between them—the gunman accused his friend of being dishonest and continuing to collect interest despite the supposed forgiveness. Over time, this accumulated resentment boiled over without any direct conversation between them, ultimately leading to the fatal confrontation. The body of the 64-year-old gunman was taken for a merit-making ceremony at Kaew Chantaram Temple in Khokkham subdistrict.
