American Shot Dead In Chiang Mai

[Krungthepian]

There have been reports of an American shot dead in a restaurant in Chiang mai this morning. Victim's name has been given as Gary Booth Poretsky, 46, from Hawaii. Shooter was allegedly an Australian William Thomas Douglas, described as former or active narcotics policeman, aged 60. 8am at a restaurant in town. Channel 7 has allegedly had reports on this; they suggested a narcotics deal gone wrong, although news is fresh, details scant. Restaurant was Koi, near canal. Shooter allegedly fled, then surrendered to police.

[Contractor]

From Perth Now

March 22, 2008 05:00pm

A WA man is facing a murder charge in Thailand after allegedly shooting dead an American citizen in a restaurant yesterday.

Police in Thailand's northern capital Chiang Mai last night confirmed William Thomas Douglas, 61, formerly of Northam, surrendered himself soon after the shooting.

Douglas, reported to be a Thai narcotics officer, was drinking with victim Gary Booth Poretsky, in Koi restaurant.

The two allegedly started arguing, before Douglas opened fire on 46-year-old Hawaiian man at about 8am local time.

Poretsky was shot once in the head and twice in the body.

The reason for the shooting is unknown, but Douglas was said to have been drinking.

He is thought to be a Vietnam veteran and some people who have had dealings with him have raised questions about his sanity, Thai newspapers reported yesterday.

Robin Hamilton-Coates, from Bangkok's Australian Embassy, said Douglas was being held at Chiang Mai police headquarters last night.

He is expected to be transferred to a local prison tomorrow.

Photos of Douglas, his Australian passport, the 11mm handgun he used to shoot Poretsky, body collectors carrying the victim's body out of the restaurant and the two men's passports were posted on the website of at least one Thai daily paper.

A Chiang Mai police spokeswoman said Douglas had lived in Thailand 28 years, and spoke the local language fluently.

A Thai woman had witnessed the shooting early morning Thai time, she said.

"A woman saw the man showing off a gun to the dead man. They had a dispute. The Thai lady watched. The Australian guy was trying to say he was a big guy in Chiang Mai.''

The policewoman said Douglas would appear before a court at a date to be fixed

[meadish_sweetball]

Moved to News Clippings.

[LaoPo]

Quite a few Farang died by violence in Thailand lately...this time Farang kills Farang... ..whatever related.

LaoPo

[Blinky Bill]

Allegedly drinking all night , 60 yrs old and 28 yrs in Thailand, carrying a gun and a former or current narcotics cop. All sounds a bit suss.

Ho hum just another shitty day in the place some folks refer to as Paradise. No symapthy for either party from me.

[pickel]

I wonder what the police conspiracy crowd is gonna say about this one.

[geriatrickid]

Story is odd. Narcotics officers in the field are not usually 60 years old. Perhaps the accused was an "informant" and liked to describe himself as a police officer. It's even odder that the Thai police would employ an elderly farang man as a narcotics officer. What one does have are police officers from other countries assigned to Thailand. DEA has a number of agents, as does UK, Australia and Germany. They all talk to each other and work at tracking shipments and intelligence gathering. Australian agents are also involved in human rights protection tracking human smuggling and I just can't see an Australian agent doing something like this.

Alot of farangs in Thailand claim to be something they are not. I would not be surprised to see this not even be drug related but more of a drunk trying to be a bigshot, along the lines of Monkey See, Monkey Do.

In any case, answering the questions pickel posed, I'm sure they will find a way to blame some Thai for the conduct of the farangs. I'm sure someone will make a link to Thaksin and blame him too.

All in all another wasted life.

[gpdjohn]

Allegedly drinking all night , 60 yrs old and 28 yrs in Thailand, carrying a gun and a former or current narcotics cop. All sounds a bit suss.

Ho hum just another shitty day in the place some folks refer to as Paradise. No symapthy for either party from me.

I couldn't agree more.

Why do they even have to mention that the guy was a cop...28 years in Thailand...it is apparent that he hasn't been a cop for some time...

Just a drunk loud mouth with a good case of smaller penis that thinks he had to carry a gun to feel big.

Iam a retired cop ( less than 8 mos. ) and when I retired, so did the weapon. If I cannot protect myself with my mouth or my fists, then my feet will do the work ...in the other direction. ( not scared, just smart..nutin worth dying for)

Last thing I would ever do now is carry a gun...but that's just me.

It has nothing to do with him being a former cop.

Just a drunk.

Let it rip..

[Thanh-BKK]

And another one on the statistic of "ALCOHOL related crime".

[farang prince]

I would suggest that we wait until there is more information about the shooting before we all go off half-cocked.

[Dupont]

Allegedly drinking all night , 60 yrs old and 28 yrs in Thailand, carrying a gun and a former or current narcotics cop. All sounds a bit suss.

Ho hum just another shitty day in the place some folks refer to as Paradise. No symapthy for either party from me.

Sorry for the delay in posting. It seems to be compulsory for us now to stare at some advert for another crap hotel web site for thirty seconds before being allowed further.

It is paradice here. Unfortunately there are some idiots that get in here. Doesn't mean it isn't paradice and you know where the airport is if it gets too shitty!

[Maejo Man]

And another one on the statistic of "ALCOHOL related crime".

....and here's another one from yesterday...

Yesterday an Indian tourist, Chetn Dadhwal, 24, was stabbed to death as he tried to break up a fight during the Full Moon party on Rin beach at Koh Phangan in Surat Thani.

Bangkok Post today

[Bluelotus]

11mm handgun ,......

Quite a cannon for an undercover cop . MK85? there was one making the rounds in CM a couple months ago , offered to me for 20k b. I declined .

[dr_Pat_Pong]

And another one on the statistic of "ALCOHOL related crime".

at 8.00 am too.

[tom21]

And another one on the statistic of "ALCOHOL related crime".

at 8.00 am too.

what happened to alcohol sales stopping at 02:00 am

[ChiangMaiThai]

Does anyone have a URL for pics of the people involved. I think I might know them or know of them anyway. And for those in CM, where is Koi restaurant?

[bruceboy]

A waste of life.

[cmsally]

Does anyone have a URL for pics of the people involved. I think I might know them or know of them anyway. And for those in CM, where is Koi restaurant?

Look at the front of todays ThaiRath newspaper for picture of the Australian guy.

Thairath

The restaurant is along Sriphum Rd on moat between the corner and Chang Puak Gate, just before Jok Somphed restaurant .

[Maejo Man]

11mm handgun ,......

Quite a cannon for an undercover cop . MK85? there was one making the rounds in CM a couple months ago , offered to me for 20k b. I declined .

FYI the MK-85 is a nominal 50 cal and also black powder, and certainly not for carrying, and I doubt very much if you were offered one

[elektrified]

Does anyone have a URL for pics of the people involved. I think I might know them or know of them anyway. And for those in CM, where is Koi restaurant?

I am quite sure that is the place right next to the Reggae or Rasta bar or whatever it is called on Sri Phum inside the moat.

[wrecker]

The story is less odd than you think. Australians are deploying lots of informers annex retired cops in countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. They do not work for the Thai but for the Australian authorities.

[meadish_sweetball]

Does anyone have a URL for pics of the people involved. I think I might know them or know of them anyway. And for those in CM, where is Koi restaurant?

I am quite sure that is the place right next to the Reggae or Rasta bar or whatever it is called on Sri Phum inside the moat.

Koi is a bit off the mark as a transcription even though it is possible that's what their English sign says.

The restaurant is known as ' เขยเชียงใหม่ ' in Thai, which means 'The in-law from Chiang Mai'. I would romanize the name as Khoei Chiang Mai.

It is a restaurant with a rustic, wooden feel, that specializes in local Northern Thai food, not adjusting the taste as much to fit the tourist market as some others who claim to do the same thing, and just like elektrified wrote, it is situated on the Northern inner side of the moat close to a rasta cafe/bar. Not usually a place where you find many foreigners.

My sincere condolences to the family of the deceased.

[stao]

Story sounds very weird. Far as I know foreign narcs are not allowed to carry weapons in Thailand. The shooter is really going to be in the crap due to murder & weapons charges.

[koto]

I would suggest that we wait until there is more information about the shooting before we all go off half-cocked.

You are so right, there is so much assume. ( ass-u-me ) going on with everything, but then again, will we ever hear all of the facts or the truth, most people from Hawaii, if they have lived there a number of years, have Aloha and don't start stink to often, we get many Aussies that would come to Hawaii, most of them drank to much and loved to fight, then again what do I know, I'll tell you what I know, booze, drugs and guns, when mixed together often end with a bang. "The life of the people is in the land"

May health and happiness be with us all.

Koto Keeper of the ocean

[Scott]

My deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased. Guns and alcohol don't really go very well together as this story is testimony to. These two likely couldn't have hurt each other in a fist fight, but a gun really ratchets up things.

I don't know about others, but I do know that one of the things I have found is that when coming from long periods overseas, and still adjusted to time, I have stayed up all night drinking--and I am not much of a drinker. Don't know if this played any part at all, but I used to enjoy coming to Thailand because of the entertainment places being open basically all night (at that time). I never had to adjust myself to the time change and could return home and fit right back in!

I don't know how long the Hawaiian guy had been here, but the other guy should have made the time change if he had been here 28 years!

By the way, don't they usually rotate drug agents in and out of the country fairly frequently? I had a friend who worked for the DEA and he managed to get re-appointed twice, but when he applied for a 3rd appointment to Thailand he was denied. He was required to return to the USA. He had to spend 6 months or a year there and then would be re-assigned to another country.

[Arkady]

11mm handgun ,......

Quite a cannon for an undercover cop . MK85? there was one making the rounds in CM a couple months ago , offered to me for 20k b. I declined .

If you do the math, you will find that 11mm is close to .45 inches and the Thai police and military, for some reason, always like to refer to a .45 semi-autos as an 11mm, although they refer to a .22 as a .22, .38 as a .38 and a .357 as a .357. The gun was almost certainly a .45 semi-auto which is also quite large for an undercover officer, although some might choose it, if they really think they need the extra stopping power.

Undercover narcs from the US DEA have been given licences to carry concealed weapons in Thailand but it required a lot of diplomatic negotiation and was not an easy thing. The licenses were only valid for a year at a time and I can't say if there are any out there now. I doubt very much if the Aussies have ever negotiated licenses for their narcs in Thailand, or if they even have any in field, rather than just assigned to police HQ and doing their fieldwork in go-go bars. Anyway this guy doesn't sound as if he had anything to do with the Australian government, except perhaps for drawing his welfare payments - more likely some demented idiot who thought it was cool to carry an unlicensed weapon around. He will now rot in the sardine can as he deserves.

My sympathies to the family of the deceased.

Edited March 23, 2008 by Arkady

[cmsally]

In the newspaper article it said the Australian was an English teacher living out in Nongjom Sansai.

It also said the American had been here about 2 weeks and was staying at Top North Hotel.

[stress]

In the newspaper article it said the Australian was an English teacher living out in Nongjom Sansai.

It also said the American had been here about 2 weeks and was staying at Top North Hotel.

yes

The Australian guy is English teacher but he called as farang cop becuz he has been helping Thai cops for some time.

Edited March 23, 2008 by stress

[Brewsta]

In 8 years of living in ChiangMai, I have been present when 3 revolvers were offered for sale and an unspecified "high-cal" snipers rifle was said to be available 'at the right price'......

Being renowned for hot air, both farang were dismissed as cranks........ but who knows?

In LOS, too many people appear to affect manners and identities that their mothers would not know.

TIT.

[drunken]

HUH. Some bring their head and some come with gun and drink right in the early hours and land up fighting, one lost head and one will land up behind bars, but lucky he is 61 and may be he should live for few more years in Thail Jail. Huh! very bad some come to die and some come to go Jail away from their mother land. Any way its very bad to know, may god protect us all and hope this kind of things will not happain again...... Edited March 23, 2008 by drunken