Two Tourists In Pai Shot By A Police Officer

[kat]

"Girl who witnessed friend being shot by Thai policeman denies being a troublemaker"

If the above article is to be believed in all of its detail of accounting the struggle, then the couple behaved in a very reckless manner that significantly and spectacularly contributed to the outcome of events. There also seems to be some intentional grey area in Reisig's accounting of events, "playfighting" etc. The article seems to overwhelmingly absolve the policeman of guilt, according to witnesses.

Obviously, this case needs reliable forensics, but that's not going to tell us everything. It is also very easy to medically prove if she is pregnant or not, but would be a violation of her privacy to force that issue. It would definitely help to ascertain her credibility, though.

*added: And last but not least, we all need to be conscientious of the source of these articles. Who is Owen Williams/showbiz spy - an independent journalist? From where? I think as these news stories surface, the source - which is always important - will be more so now.

** As for myself, I'll stick with Drummond.

Edited January 9, 2008 by kat

[sabaijai]

"Girl who witnessed friend being shot by Thai policeman denies being a troublemaker"

If the above article is to be believed in all of its detail of accounting the struggle, then the couple behaved in a very reckless manner that significantly and spectacularly contributed to the outcome of events. There also seems to be some intentional grey area in Reisig's accounting of events, "playfighting" etc. The article seems to overwhelmingly absolve the policeman of guilt, according to witnesses.

Obviously, this case needs reliable forensics, but that's not going to tell us everything. It is also very easy to medically prove if she is pregnant or not, but would be a violation of her privacy to force that issue. It would definitely help to ascertain her credibility, though.

*added: And last but not least, we all need to be conscientious of the source of these articles. Who is Owen Williams/showbiz spy - an independent journalist? From where? I think as these news stories surface, the source - which is always important - will be more so now.

** As for myself, I'll stick with Drummond.

Whoever he is, he's reporting what all the witnesses in Pai are saying, and they're saying the same thing to Drummond, who is there now.

One detail no one has yet mentioned is that Reisig is quite tall (somewhere between 5' 10" and six feet, I'd estimate), and heavily built. She and Del Pinto would've towered over Sgt Uthai.

[DamianMavis]

Surely the doctors at the hospital caring for her know whether she was pregnant or not!? This is kind of important as the cops are using this as a reason for motive behind the "fight" the 2 Canadians were having. The witness reports are too perfect... they even claim the cop identified himself as a police officer, every base covered...... he is not going to be punished with ANYTHING...... mark my words and watch, down the road when this is all over he will be completely untouched.

Damian

[DamianMavis]

More info.

As i mentioned in my previous posts on this subject, I live in Pai and know this policeman having played football with him and and seen him around on numerous occasions over the past 5 years. He is not a bad guy but has a serious drinking problem and family issues. I have seen him on many occasions in the Be Bop bar extremely drunk and packing his pistol both in and out of uniform. Apparently he was suspended from carrying his gun up until recently (for what reason I am not sure) and had only just had this privelige restored.

FACT - many people witnessed him drinking all night in Be Bop prior to the incident. He certainly had not just come off duty. Judging by the state he normally gets into, he would barely have been capable of standing up and would be the most unsuitable person i can imagine to intervene in a domestic with anyone, let alone a farang couple especially as his english is very bad and next to impossible to understand when he is drunk. To be honest, I doubt he can recall what happened and was probably in blackout mode.

This concocted self defense bs is catagorically untrue according to the large number of witnesses. Like I said he was pushed to the ground and reacted straight away. He was not getting beaten up and there was no attempt to wrestle his gun away. I have all this from people who were there! The local people will not get involved as witnesses due to the inevitable repurcussions that would follow. Not sure if there were any tourists that witnessed this.

Whatever some of the more ridiculous posters think of farang behaviour and its rights and wrongs, you try keeping your cool if you found out your wife/girlfriend had been shagging around behind your back and was pregnant as a result. Imagine then, being confronted by some drunken guy you cannot understand and who you would never expect to be a policeman in that state. Some perspective is needed here.

A long hard look at gun carrying proceedure for off duty cops is also needed. As far as I am aware, it is illegal for an off duty cop to be carrying his gun.

The pre-meditated charge is also very confusing, especially if you subscribe to the official police lie err sorry, line.

Thats the post I was talking about Sabaijai.

Damian

Edited January 9, 2008 by DamianMavis

[JungleJim]

Ms Reisig adamantly stuck to her claim that Police Sergeant Major Uthai Dechawiwat was the one who struck the first blow early last Sunday morning as she was walking from the Be-Bop bar in Pai to the Bamboo Bar.

"Things are a bit foggy. I can't quite remember what happened before the incident, But I can remember everything very clearly from the time that man hit me in the face.

"Leo and I were always messing around and play fighting noisily. We might have even been yelling at each other, play-fighting - but not in anger, it was just our way of kidding around, having fun. We never fought in anger. But even if we were fighting, we weren't hurting anybody else. It didn't give anyone the right to shoot us.

"I don't feel at all responsible for the shooting. The guy who did this was crazy."

Last night as the sunset on Pai, a former by-water which has been taken over in the last 3 years by a massive backpacker invasion, two Thai witnesses said they insisted it was Carly not the policeman who started the fight.

Knowing the policeman involved, I find it hard to believe he waltzed up and punched Carly in the face before being assualted to whatever degree first. A heavy drinker with personal problems yes, but with no history of public violence even at his most inebriated. Having said that I have only encountered him socially, not in a stressful situation like this.

[the gent]

It is truly an amazing fact that any substantive stay in Thailand may generally result in the resident losing significant perspective to a degree that commonsense displayed in their former, generally, western societies is no longer available and their thinking begins to resemble that of the typical, cognitively challenged, Somchai whose dottiness is occasionally peddled as the epitome of Thai culture and therefore must be respected to the point murder is somehow sanctioned. Kat's post verges upon this phenomenon and has an echo throughout the forum.

Irregardless of the social disposition of the young Carly and her chums, the lethality of the policeman's actions would suggest a disproportionate response to the most mundane of public order offences allegedly committed by the victims.To anyone with the meanest of intelligence and the most passing of interest in what might constitute the most basic rule of law, gunning down young people in these circumstances is not only wrong according to any ethic but is in fact a crime that in any right thinking society would result in the policeman's incarceration for a very long time.

That some posters actually contend the victims brought this upon themselves and therefore must bear a degree of culpability is quite astonishing and probably indicative of the impoverished intellect demonstrated by the utterly cynical police regime prevailing in Thailand.

[Boo]

Does it really matter who did what first,? To me it shouldn't, the guy had no reason to shoot two people, one of them to death for a fight or hitting him (if they did or not), he could & should have called for back up, he should never have drawn his weapon or even had it on him whilst he was off duty. A lot of apologists for either side on this thread but the sad reality is a man is dead for an alledged argument with his ex gf & a scuffle with an armed police officer. If the police office didn't have his weapon then the couple couldn't have (alledgely) wresteled it away from him. For me it is shoudl have gone another way; victim arrested & charged - yes, serve some time in jail for assaulting a police officer - yes. Get shot & die - no.

[kat]

the gent, post #612:

Wow, you sure took a while to churn that one out and seems to be as intelligible as reading a thesaurus.

My echo throughout? Please take your nose out of the writing aid material and read carefully. I am merely commenting on the way events are presented with as much skepticism and doubt as they will allow, and have aimed to post those doubts carefully and honestly. My last post is simply repeating what the last article reported, with my own caveats and doubts.

I am not purporting any of it to be true, as I or anyone else is not in that position to do so. However, I am not so brain dead or intellectually impoverished as you seem to be to blindly excuse an ALLEGED physical charge and overturn of a self-declared police officer with a gun, ANYWHERE, or under ANY circumstances, because it would be reckless endangerment leading to very unwanted circumstances. In Thailand, it would be beyond stupid.

However, as I have ALREADY stated, we don't know which version to be true, and should maintain skepticism of all accounts until we have scientific evidence to add to verbal accounts.

*edit above and spelling

Edited January 9, 2008 by kat

[sabaijai]

It is truly an amazing fact that any substantive stay in Thailand may generally result in the resident losing significant perspective to a degree that commonsense displayed in their former, generally, western societies is no longer available and their thinking begins to resemble that of the typical, cognitively challenged, Somchai whose dottiness is occasionally peddled as the epitome of Thai culture and therefore must be respected to the point murder is somehow sanctioned. Kat's post verges upon this phenomenon and has an echo throughout the forum.

Irregardless of the social disposition of the young Carly and her chums, the lethality of the policeman's actions would suggest a disproportionate response to the most mundane of public order offences allegedly committed by the victims.To anyone with the meanest of intelligence and the most passing of interest in what might constitute the most basic rule of law, gunning down young people in these circumstances is not only wrong according to any ethic but is in fact a crime that in any right thinking society would result in the policeman's incarceration for a very long time.

That some posters actually contend the victims brought this upon themselves and therefore must bear a degree of culpability is quite astonishing and probably indicative of the impoverished intellect demonstrated by the utterly cynical police regime prevailing in Thailand.

Please stick to a discussion of the points raised and refrain from ad hominem attacks. Everyone has an opinion, deal with it.

[DamianMavis]

I dont know what side the gent is actually arguing for!

I for one think professional forensic evidence is needed in Thailand for a case like this to ensure the police dont cover things up and pressure witnesses. The evidence could contradict them even if people would not.

Damian

Edited January 9, 2008 by DamianMavis

[sabaijai]

Thats the post I was talking about Sabaijai.

Damian

OK thanks. So I can answer your question:

What about the poster who says he knows the shooter and talked to witnesses that contradict you?

The witnesses I talked to who were at the restaurant that night didn't know about Uthai's gun having been seized by the police (if that's indeed true). So it's not a contradiction, just not a (reported) fact known to them. And just to make it perfectly clear, that notion doesn't contradict me, as I'm not a witness. Like Jungle Jim, I have a home in Pai, and know most of the people involved. I'm gathering local observations for a feature story on the crime that won't be published until after the case has gone to court (assuming it does, and if it doesn't then I suppose it will be something of a contemporary Thai Rashomon).

Incidentally the same poster (Jungle Jim) has more recently posted:

Knowing the policeman involved, I find it hard to believe he waltzed up and punched Carly in the face before being assaulted to whatever degree first.

An observation corroborated by most of the eyewitnesses interviewed thus far, and shared among Pai residents who knew Sgt Uthai. The officer committed a crime by shooting the couple, but the exact circumstances of the incident--as determined by eyewitness testimony and police forensics--along with an examination of the background shared by the participants, will help determine final charges and sentencing.

[DamianMavis]

I meant contradict your witnesses, sorry if I said you.

Damian

[the gent]

I dont know what side the gent is actually arguing for!

I for one think professional forensic evidence is needed in Thailand for a case like this to ensure the police dont cover things up and pressure witnesses. The evidence could contradict them even if people would not.

Damian

Damian, the crime scene was in all likelihood not preserved and the evidential value accordingly corrupted. What will doubtless follow will be a pantomime re-enactment in lieu of forensic investigation.Forensic analysis without a methodology acquiring evidence forming that analysis is worthless.

Pornthip is a voice in the wilderness that is the Thai judicial system.

[stumonster]

It is truly an amazing fact that any substantive stay in Thailand may generally result in the resident losing significant perspective to a degree that commonsense displayed in their former, generally, western societies is no longer available and their thinking begins to resemble that of the typical, cognitively challenged

I don't think Thai police are highly trained professionals with nearly unlimited resources and backup at their disposal , especially in ban nork - why do so many other posters seems to think they are/have ?

[kat]

There is Pornthip, but I don't think she handles cases like this one ordinarily. However, the boy's body will be shipped back to Canada, and I'm sure will be examined by forensics there.

[sriracha john]

as Kat was saying....

Body of Calgary man returning home

The body of a Calgary man shot and killed in Thailand is coming home. Leo Del Pinto died early Sunday after being shot in the face and chest in the city of Pai in the northern part of the country.

His travel companion, Carly Reisig of Chilliwack, B.C., was also shot in the chest. She is out of intensive care, but remains in a Thai hospital recovering from her injuries.

Reisig says a Thai police officer shot them without provocation.

He is reportedly claiming that he was breaking up a fight outside a bar and he shot Del Pinto and Reisig accidentally.

The man is facing charges of pre-meditated murder.

Del Pinto's body is expected to be back in Calgary on Saturday.

- CTV News (Canada)

[canuckamuck]

People that aquire a reputation for drinking then fighting are usually not great lovers of the truth either. On the other hand the cop seems to have had his own issues.

There is never going to be a clear depection of what occured that night. My suspicion is that Carly was already a conversation item at the the Pai police headquarters (large falang lady, no respect for cops). Uthai was fueled up with liquid courage and thought he would take her down a notch. What happened next was tragic and unexpected but neither side took steps to avoid it.

[taxexile]

kat

"Girl who witnessed friend being shot by Thai policeman denies being a troublemaker"

If the above article is to be believed in all of its detail of accounting the struggle, then the couple behaved in a very reckless manner that significantly and spectacularly contributed to the outcome of events. There also seems to be some intentional grey area in Reisig's accounting of events, "playfighting" etc. The article seems to overwhelmingly absolve the policeman of guilt, according to witnesses.

That is just about spot on , apart from the policemans guilt , which cannot under any circumstances be absolved. he acted like a monster.

this , unfortunate and by all accounts highly visible and in your face western couple , beery ,noisy and aggressive , have justifiably or not , for a while been ruffling local feathers around the town , her liasons with local men or man likewise.

during their time in this country they seemed to have been insensitive to local "ways" and , in typical blinkered western style , just ploughed on with their lives , not taking in much of local social culture , or noticing what lies beneath the surface in this country.

sadly they then ruffled the feathers of the local armed madman , who in a moment of insanity shot them.

no of course they didnt deserve it , and yes the policeman should be punished to the full extent of the law.... but he wont.

in any small thai community , if a local lad or couple ruffled feathers in a similar way , local "justice" would also sort them out one way or another.

the nail that sticks out must be hammered down.

in a few days the fuss will all die down , and life in pai and in all the other thai towns where foriegners come for long periods to "chill out" , (but in the eyes of locals "to waste their lives" in rattan huts and bars) , will carry on as normal.

[ChiangMaiAmerican]

Anyone know what type of gun was used? It is much more difficult to fire 3 accidental shots with a revolver than an automatic. With a revolver the first shot might be an accident but the next two would require more than a light touch on the trigger.

Edited January 10, 2008 by ChiangMaiAmerican

[kat]

kat

"Girl who witnessed friend being shot by Thai policeman denies being a troublemaker"

If the above article is to be believed in all of its detail of accounting the struggle, then the couple behaved in a very reckless manner that significantly and spectacularly contributed to the outcome of events. There also seems to be some intentional grey area in Reisig's accounting of events, "playfighting" etc. The article seems to overwhelmingly absolve the policeman of guilt, according to witnesses.

That is just about spot on , apart from the policemans guilt , which cannot under any circumstances be absolved. he acted like a monster.

this , unfortunate and by all accounts highly visible and in your face western couple , beery ,noisy and aggressive , have justifiably or not , for a while been ruffling local feathers around the town , her liasons with local men or man likewise.

during their time in this country they seemed to have been insensitive to local "ways" and , in typical blinkered western style , just ploughed on with their lives , not taking in much of local social culture , or noticing what lies beneath the surface in this country.

sadly they then ruffled the feathers of the local armed madman , who in a moment of insanity shot them.

no of course they didnt deserve it , and yes the policeman should be punished to the full extent of the law.... but he wont.

in any small thai community , if a local lad or couple ruffled feathers in a similar way , local "justice" would also sort them out one way or another.

the nail that sticks out must be hammered down.

in a few days the fuss will all die down , and life in pai and in all the other thai towns where foriegners come for long periods to "chill out" , (but in the eyes of locals "to waste their lives" in rattan huts and bars) , will carry on as normal.

Thanks Tax. I just need to clarify that I was discussing the policeman's guilt - above - according to the belief of the witnesses in the article, not my own.

[Thai at Heart]

Ms Reisig adamantly stuck to her claim that Police Sergeant Major Uthai Dechawiwat was the one who struck the first blow early last Sunday morning as she was walking from the Be-Bop bar in Pai to the Bamboo Bar.

"Things are a bit foggy. I can't quite remember what happened before the incident, But I can remember everything very clearly from the time that man hit me in the face.

"Leo and I were always messing around and play fighting noisily. We might have even been yelling at each other, play-fighting - but not in anger, it was just our way of kidding around, having fun. We never fought in anger. But even if we were fighting, we weren't hurting anybody else. It didn't give anyone the right to shoot us.

"I don't feel at all responsible for the shooting. The guy who did this was crazy."

Last night as the sunset on Pai, a former by-water which has been taken over in the last 3 years by a massive backpacker invasion, two Thai witnesses said they insisted it was Carly not the policeman who started the fight.

Knowing the policeman involved, I find it hard to believe he waltzed up and punched Carly in the face before being assualted to whatever degree first. A heavy drinker with personal problems yes, but with no history of public violence even at his most inebriated. Having said that I have only encountered him socially, not in a stressful situation like this.

The whole who hit whom first issue is to me semantics. It is however filled with cultural undertones because I think we can all see how a woman publilcally humiliating a Thai man could make him see red. In the pictures it shows him clambering over his bike with gun in hand in a struggle. Now that is wonderful police work if I ever saw it.

These people did not deserve to be shot. They may have been fighting, they may have been arguing, they might have been doing anything they want. To have a drunk, stressed policeman off duty under the influence handling a situation like this shows how utterly inept law enforcement is in this country. A man in plain clothes approaching people at 2 am with a gun is simply that. Who knows whether or not the policeman was even capable of stating in anything other than mountain dialect that he was a "kon tamruat?" Disasters happen all the time and involve a long chain of events, however, in this situation the conduct of the policeman is absolutely at fault because of his inebriated state and his ridiculous hot headed handling of events.

[slapout]

From statement above, police handguns do not have safety catch (603) it must be a revolver, as semi auto handguns do have safety locks on them. I have not seen all weapons of the world, but the many I have looked at do have a safety. 3 accidental shots from a revolver is hard to believe under any conditions.

[Journalist]

So the moral of this story is then.....

'If you see a Policeman in Thailand.....and he is carrying a weapon, ........get it off him, so he can't decide to shoot you with it'

Better safe than sorry.

[cm-happy]

A lot of outrage and flapping about the two Canadians involved in this incident. And a general feeling that Uthai(the Thai cop) should be hung by the balls!

There is another thread about 3 Thai police being murdered. Is this not worthy of an equal amount of outrage or are the lives of the 3 Thai police not as important as the Canadians?

Hmm, TVer's talk about Thai people being ethnocentric, take a look in the mirror.

[Joel Barlow]

maybe the best was the "Sick Society" comment!

Compared to what?

[Maxi101]

More Rashomon...

Girl who witnessed friend being shot by Thai policeman denies being a troublemaker

Canadian Carly Reisig, who witnessed her best friend being shot to death by a Thai policeman before being shot herself, last night denied being a troublemaker.

But she admitted that she had been involved in heated rows in the past in the picturesque hill tribe village of Pai near the Burma border - and had herself struck a Thai policeman.

Reisig, 24, who has stars tattooed in her left eyelid, said that two months prior to the arrival of Leo del Pinto, also 24, from Calgary, she had intervened after a scuffle broke out in a bar involving an Israeli tourist and a former Thai boyfriend called 'Nui'.

"The Israeli guy hit my Thai boyfriend and I tried to break it up but I couldn't. Then the police came and took them outside and they circled around Nui and were pushing him, so I got involved.

"I went in there and hit one of the cops. I was very drunk that night. The cops took us both to the police station and made us give urine samples. The test came out clear and they let us both go."

On another occasion she said she was involved in a fight at a regular party at a nearby arts market called Pittalew with her current boyfriend Rattaporn Varawadee nicknamed Fuen.

"We had our first fight. We were sitting on the bench together, and then I started crying and walked off. I was walking around crying but neither of us touched anyone else."

Ms Reisig adamantly stuck to her claim that Police Sergeant Major Uthai Dechawiwat was the one who struck the first blow early last Sunday morning as she was walking from the Be-Bop bar in Pai to the Bamboo Bar.

"Things are a bit foggy. I can't quite remember what happened before the incident, But I can remember everything very clearly from the time that man hit me in the face.

"Leo and I were always messing around and play fighting noisily. We might have even been yelling at each other, play-fighting - but not in anger, it was just our way of kidding around, having fun. We never fought in anger. But even if we were fighting, we weren't hurting anybody else. It didn't give anyone the right to shoot us.

"I don't feel at all responsible for the shooting. The guy who did this was crazy."

Last night as the sunset on Pai, a former by-water which has been taken over in the last 3 years by a massive backpacker invasion, two Thai witnesses said they insisted it was Carly not the policeman who started the fight.

Kanasphuchit Sankam, the owner of a karaoke bar who was eating at the noodles at the time said: "I watched the couple come up, punching each other and yelling.

"It didn't look like they were pretending, it looked like a real fight, they were shouting loudly and punching each other, but I don't know what the fight was about.

"They even knocked over one of the motorbikes that was parked on the bridge. I watched Uthai go over to try and stop the fight.

He said 'Stop, I am police' and held out his hand in front of him, with his other hand ready to draw his gun. They pushed him over and he got his gun out.

"The girl started crying loudly and he told her to calm down and go and sit down. The policeman then started walking away from the scene, but the girl got up and hit him.

"Leo then joined her in hitting him and they all fell onto the ground. I couldn't see them anymore because of the parked cars, but I then heard three shots go off. If the girl had not provoked him, nothing would have happened."

A similar story in almost identical words was told by Saijai Gawin the owner of the noodle shop.

The Thai police investigator Lt-Colonel Sombat Panya has already given a reason for the couple fighting. He said Leo Del Pinto, who recently arrived in Thailand, found out that Reisig had become pregnant with a Thai man known as Fuen.

Associated Press has quoted Sombat Panya as saying that the foetus 'was unharmed' - although Ms Reisig denies being pregnant.

As in the case of British backpackers Vanessa Arscott,23, and Adam Lloyd who were gunned down by a Thai policeman in Kanchanaburi by the River Kwai in Thailand in 2004 it seems unlikely that Ms Reisig will be able to produce any witnesses in Thailand to prove her side of the story.

Her current Thai boyfriend, while claiming the shootings had no justification, is reluctant to say any more. Ms Reisig's willingness to go out with local Thai men will not have helped her image in a society which regards western women as 'easy'.

Four years ago in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand, Briton Adam Lloyd was gunned down by Police Sergeant Somchai Wisetsingh and then got into his Volvo car and ran down Vanessa dragging her body under the car along the riverside road.

He then got out and as she clung to an electric pylon shot her in the head, neck and chest.

In the ensuing furor stories were put out that Vanessa had slept with Wisetsingh and had returned to the town to see him again.

There were several witnesses to the shooting. They would not go to court but were able to tell the victim's parents exactly what happened. Each one said they were scared to give evidence against the local police.

In the case of the death of John Leo del Pinto it seems the only reliable evidence may be forensic, and hope of a satisfactory conclusion for the young man's family may be down to close monitoring of the case by the media, Canadian government and lawyers.

The grouping of the shots is vital. But there already appears to be an answer as to why the gun fired. "Police told me that their guns do not have safety catches," a local reporter said last night.

- By Owen Williams, Jan 09 2008 © Copyright 2008

I know nobody cares about my opinion, but apart from what I stated before here my final opinion and it IS final.

1. There is no reason to kill somebody in such a way.

2. Ms. Reisig is very very stupid and her behaivour is totally unplaced here in Thailand.

I give her the fault that it came to this.

The action on the policemans account. But the trigger has been surely Ms. Reisig - for me she shares a big part of responsibility for her death boyfriend - and that after staying here a year.

I might say until you haven't stayed here longer that 3 years you know nothing and should behave careful and always friendly. But even then some do need longer to learn.

maxi

[sriracha john]

Family of slain Canadian calls for protection of his wounded friend

CALGARY - The family of a Canadian man shot and killed in Thailand last weekend is getting frustrated at the lack of answers coming from the Canadian and Thai governments and wants protection for his friend who was wounded in the same attack.

Leo John Del Pinto, 24, died after being shot in the face and chest early Sunday in the northern Thai town of Pai.

"The family of slain Canadian citizen Leo Del Pinto continue to struggle with the senseless murder of their son and brother," family spokesman Ross Fortune said in a late Wednesday release from Calgary.

"Why are they not given answers to this question by either the Canadian or Thai governments?

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs in Ottawa could not be reached late Wednesday for comment.

Del Pinto's family believes he was shot at point-blank range while defending his friend Carly Reisig of Chilliwack, B.C., after a man punched her in the head.

A Thai police officer has been charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of Del Pinto, who was 24, and with "intent to kill" in the wounding of Reisig.

But the officer was released on bail less than a day after Del Pinto's death.

Reisig, who also shot in the chest during the altercation and is recovering in a Thai hospital, has said she is worried about her safety and that of her Thai boyfriend, who also witnessed the shootings.

"The Canadian government has not assigned anyone to watch over and protect Carly and her boyfriend at this point in time," said Fortune.

"This is of great concern to the Del Pinto family as Carly and her boyfriend are the only two reliable witnesses to the murder of Leo Del Pinto."

Fortune said Del Pinto's family talked at length with Reisig for the first time Wednesday afternoon. They said Reisig wishes to return back to Canada with her boyfriend and ask that "the government expedites this process as quickly as possible so that Carly and her boyfriend can be in a safe environment."

Del Pinto's body is expected to return to Canada by the weekend and the family expects the funeral will be held early next week.

- Canadian Press

[Dupont]

So the moral of this story is then.....

'If you see a Policeman in Thailand.....and he is carrying a weapon, ........get it off him, so he can't decide to shoot you with it'

Better safe than sorry.

I saw just this on Thai Tv Cops show. Bangkoks finest were pulling over motorists. A cop sat at a table on the road side had his gun taken by the man waiting for him to write out a ticket. He emptied the gun at the three police and missed even from that range.

[grantbkk]

Glock handguns are semi-automatic weapons that do not have safety catches in the traditional sense. The manufacture and gun users rely on extensive training and discipline to operate the weapon safely. The Glock handguns are widely available worldwide and are a preferred sidearm of BIB. That said, it would be next to impossible to get off three shots accidentally. The shooter would have to have a uncontrolled spasm caused by injury or disease to get that many shots off without thinking. This case probably involves a "fight or flight" reaction of the shooter and in a second before the shooting decided to "fight". Perhaps like everything illegal in Thailand, like off-duty police officers carrying guns, controls should be instituted to enforce the laws and rules that are in place for a reason.

[sriracha john]

Thai officer says Canadian was shot in scuffle

CALGARY - A Thai police officer accused of murdering a Calgary man says the fatal shots were fired as the officer fell during a struggle with Leo Del Pinto.

On Wednesday, Sgt. Maj. Uthai Dechawiwat told the Calgary Herald that Del Pinto and his friend, Carly Reisig, hit and pushed the officer after he was asked to intervene in a fight they were having early Sunday morning in the northern Thai town of Pai.

He said the pair pushed him into a motorcycle and, as the off-duty officer fell, his gun came loose from his holster.

He said he and Del Pinto struggled for the gun and, as he wrenched it from the Calgary man's hands, the officer fell backwards and the three shots that killed Del Pinto and wounded Reisig were fired.

That's a vastly different picture than Reisig has painted.

The woman, who is still recovering from a bullet wound to her chest in a hospital bed in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said she and Del Pinto were play-fighting, but causing no harm when Dechawiwat intervened and pulled out a gun.

Reisig said she and Del Pinto had a playful relationship and may have been loud after they left a bar early Sunday morning. "We hadn't seen each other in a long time," she said. "We weren't causing any harm to each other." Reisig has been in hospital since early Sunday morning. Del Pinto died at the scene.

Dechawiwat, 37, has been charged with premeditated murder and attempted murder in the case. He has been released as the investigation continues.

Reisig said the officer, who did not identify himself, punched her as she and Del Pinto were walking down the road. Del Pinto rushed to defend Reisig and pushed the man, who then pulled out a gun, Reisig said. After struggling to gain control of the pistol, she said, Del Pinto was shot in the head and chest.

An American who used to live in the town where the shooting occurred said he believes Reisig's version of events, largely because the accused officer has a reputation for gunplay.

The Florida native, who wished to be identified only as Rob, lived in the northern Thai town of Pai for eight months and is an acquaintance of both Reisig and her Thai boyfriend.

Rob told the Vancouver Province from his current home in Chiang Mai that he attended a concert in Pai in the fall of 2006 during which the officer fired into the air several times.

"He was drunk. All the off-duty officers were drinking together," said Rob. "He fired his weapon into the air and everyone had to scatter. He has a reputation in town for pulling out his weapon."

He said Dechawiwat is known in the town of 2,500 "for not behaving the way a sergeant should, even when he's not on duty."

Andrew Drummond, a journalist in Bangkok, told the CBC there are villagers backing up the officer's story that it was Reisig who attacked the officer first, after he was called to calm her and Del Pinto down.

"Of course, you have to take this all with a little bit of a pinch of salt. Nobody in Pai is going to give evidence against their local policeman," Drummond said, explaining Pai residents are afraid of the police.

Reisig, whose medical insurance ran out three days before the shooting, has been moved out of intensive care.

"I think we're all concerned about (Carly's medical bills) at this point, because we don't know what's going to happen," said her mother, Suzanne Reisig, in Chilliwack, B.C.

"I'm sure it will be thousands."

- Calgary Herald