On 26 Nov, during a court inquest into the death of Mana Ajran, another casualty resulting from the crackdown on red shirts in April and May 2010, a forensic doctor told the court that he was killed by a high velocity bullet which destroyed his brain.
Mana, about 20, an employee of Dusit Zoo opposite Parliament House, was shot dead on the night of 10 April 2010 at the zoo. The military was using the zoo as one of its troop relief bases. Hours earlier, military troops had clashed with red-shirt protesters on Ratchadamnoen Ave resulting in casualties and injuries on both sides.
Air Vice Marshal Dr Wichan Piawnim, Head of the Forensic Unit at the Faculty of Medicine of Ramathibodi Hospital, testified that he performed an autopsy on the body of Mana at his hospital at 10.30 am on 11 April 2010 after the body had been transferred from Dusit police at 2 am.
He found that Mana had been shot in the back of his head from a slightly low angle, with an exit wound in his forehead.
He concluded that the victim had been killed by a high velocity bullet of a type used with war weapons such as an M16 and AKA.
The inquest will have two more hearings on 17 and 24 Dec, with 11 more witnesses.
