diff --git a/libmariadb/mariadb_lib.c b/libmariadb/mariadb_lib.c
index 32e66bea..39e69243 100644
--- a/libmariadb/mariadb_lib.c
+++ b/libmariadb/mariadb_lib.c
@@ -2785,10 +2785,13 @@ mysql_refresh(MYSQL *mysql,uint options)
 int STDCALL
 mysql_kill(MYSQL *mysql,ulong pid)
 {
-  char buff[12];
-  int4store(buff,pid);
-  /* if we kill our own thread, reading the response packet will fail */
-  return(ma_simple_command(mysql, COM_PROCESS_KILL,buff,4,0,0));
+  char buff[26];
+
+  if (pid & (~0xFFFFFFFFUL))
+    snprintf(buff, sizeof buff, "KILL %llu", (ulonglong)pid);
+  else
+    snprintf(buff, sizeof buff, "KILL %lu", pid);
+  return mysql_real_query(mysql, (char *)buff, (ulong)strlen(buff));
 }