An 18-year-old man used a hammer to fatally strike his close friend in their bedroom, triggered by anger after the victim warned him to lower the volume of his guitar playing. Ban Khai Police Station in Rayong quickly arrested the suspect at the scene nearby canal.
On 8 Nov 2026, reporters learned that at 08:00 on 7 Nov 2026, Lieutenant Satthawat Phusarath, deputy investigator at Ban Khai Police Station, received a report via the station's radio room about a fatal assault at a residence in Nong Phawa Village, Bang But Subdistrict, Ban Khai District, Rayong Province. He informed Police Colonel Pramot Kongkhalai, chief of Ban Khai Police Station, who led officers, rescue volunteers from Sawang Phra Rayong at Ban Khai, and the duty doctor from Ban Khai Hospital to investigate.
At the scene, the victim was found face down beside the bed inside the bedroom. He was identified as Jiraphan or Lek Wetwong, 21, wearing plaid long pants without a shirt. His head had been struck with a blunt object, causing severe wounds with blood pooling on the floor. There was one wound on the front of his head and three wounds on the back.
Investigations revealed the perpetrator was a childhood close friend of the victim, though they had grown apart recently. Before the incident, the suspect came to the victim's home and started playing a guitar. The victim noticed the loud volume leaking into the bedroom and warned him to lower it. This angered the suspect, who then grabbed a hammer lying in the house, stormed into the bedroom, and struck the victim's head repeatedly, rendering him motionless. The suspect then fled with the hammer, walking along the nearby irrigation canal.
CCTV footage showed the victim walking calmly. Police pursued and later arrested the suspect, identified as Sirawat, 18, at Nong Phawa Temple. The suspect had been left in the care of the temple abbot by his grandmother. Police recovered the hammer from the canal behind the temple.
Chaiyachana Thaicharoen, 58, the victim's stepfather, said the victim and suspect had been friends since childhood but grew apart recently because the suspect refused to quit drug involvement despite repeated warnings. The victim had long ceased such activities. This likely caused resentment, which escalated after the warning about the noise, leading to the violent act. He thanked the police for their swift arrest of the suspect.
Initially, Ban Khai Police took Sirawat into custody for interrogation to determine the motive behind the murder of his close friend, and legal proceedings will follow.