SURIN -- Police have arrested 14 young men, 11 of them minors, suspected of beating to death a man and his 14-year-old nephew they mistakenly believed to be rival gang members in Khawao Sin Narin district early on Monday morning.
The attack occurred near kilometre marker 11 on a road to Ban Chan Phen in tambon Prasat Thong about 3am on Sunday, police said.
Mual Manyuen, 31, and his nephew Anirut Booncharoen, 14, both of Sarae-o village in tambon Prasat Thong, were travelling on a motorcycle when they were stopped by a group of youths.
Their motorcycle fell to the ground and Mual's head hit the roadside kerb. The man and his nephew were then beaten fiercely by their assailants.
Mual died at the scene while the boy was seriously hurt and died later at Surin Hospital.
Police later arrested 14 people suspected to have been involved in the attack. Two of them are 14 years old, nine are aged 17 and the three others 18 and over.
Pol Maj Sompong Wong-inta, an inspector of the local Takook station, said the suspects said during initial questioning they had mistaken the two victims for members of a rival gang.
Police later took three suspects, aged 18 and over, to the crime scene for a re-enactment without telling victims' relatives. The three were identified as Athip Jarat, 18, Pattanachai Roekdee, 21, and Prakit Nuwaiya, 22. The other 11 suspects were not taken to the scene as they are minors.
About 200 people, including the two victim's relatives, then rallied at Takook police station with the body of the dead teenager. They demanded police do the re-enactment again and make the suspects apologise in front of them to the bodies of the two victims.
The protest drew Pol Col Apichart Jaengjan, deputy commander of Surin police, and Somchai Amphankan, chief of Khawao Sin Narin district, to the police station that handled the case.
They told the demonstrators there could not be another re-enactment because most of the suspects were minors and their rights had to be protected. They gave assurances the case would be handled fairly and as quickly as possible, and the angry villagers agreed to leave.