Thai monk shoots a man with a shotgun in a meditation center in northern Thailand
Yesterday, a monk who runs a Buddhist meditation center in northern Thailand’s Phitsanulok province resolved a long-running argument with another man by shooting the other man.
Sai Yoi Police officer Suparerk Chanmee claimed that the shooting, which took place at the Ratchathani Buddhist Meditation Center, was reported to police around 10 a.m. yesterday morning. Shortly after the report, police and rescue workers arrived on the scene.
One 41-year-old Phra Sitthikorn Yankhrue, the monk who fired the fatal shot, was waiting for the police at the scene. According to Thai media, the monk gave the shotgun to the police and surrendered. The body of 67-year-old Phadung Thongbo lay dead nearby with gunshot wounds to his body.
Suthewadi Ratchathani, 52, who reportedly witnessed the shooting, said she had invited Phra Sitthikorn to lead a meditation centre three years earlier. At the time, Khun Sitthikorn was at a temple in Uttaradit province.
Suthewadi adds that she donated land for the meditation centre. The eyewitness continued to say that the victim owned a plot of land next to the centre and had an ongoing feud with Sitthikorn.
She says that when she came to the centre this morning with food for Sitthokorm, he was in the middle of a fiery argument with Phadung. Suthewadi adds that she then saw the monk, who was in charge of a meditation centre, shoot the other man with a shotgun, killing him immediately. It is unknown at this time what the two men were arguing about.
Phra Sitthikorn was immediately laicized by a local abbot and has now been charged with murder as a non-monk.
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