BANGKOK – In the latest of controversial actions by the offspring of veteran PPP politician and Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung, a family of five has been killed by his son Wanchalerm, in an apparently over-zealous attempt to enforce the Kingdom’s new anti-smoking laws.
According to details released by the Bangkok Metropolitan Police, Wanchalerm was “off-duty” at the Exotica Nightclub on Thonglor last Saturday when he became engaged in an altercation with Anurak Pengsuri, 34. According to witnesses, Wan drew a gun and shot Anurak in the face twice, killing him instantly. Afterwards, he retrieved Anurak’s address by looking at his ID card, drove his Mercedes SL500 to Anurak’s residence, and summarily executed Anurak’s widow, mother, and two briefly orphaned children, aged 3 and 4. When police showed up at the scene, Wan, a secretary to Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap Chaovarat Chanweerakul, produced his government ID and insisted that Anurak had been smoking indoors.
Chalerm defended his son’s actions today, suggesting that Anurak was entirely at fault and that Wan was merely enforcing good public morals. “Everyone knows that smoking kills over 300,000 people in Thailand every year,” he noted. “My son only killed five. Truly he was working in the interest of the people.” When asked about why it was necessary to kill the entire family as well, Chalerm remained adamant: “If the father is a criminal, the sons will surely be as well. The fruit never falls far from the tree.”
