Local Cable Tv News Presenter Narrowly Escapes

[libya 115]

SOURCE: Pattaya One News: July 5th 2008

Local Cable TV News Presenter narrowly escapes death following shooting.

Just after 3am on Saturday Morning, Police Lieutenant Jirasak from Banglamung Police Station received an urgent call to attend the scene of a shooting which had just taken place on the Sukumvit Road in Naklua.

No injuries were reported. At the scene, the officer was met by the victim of the shooting, Khun Awadar aged 31, a Thai News Presenter on Sophon Cable TV. She was in a distraught state and was surrounded by friends, many of which are local news reporters who also documented the case for their respective news organizations. Khun Awadar directed Police to her car, a Blue Honda Jazz, where a gun shot through the front windscreen was evident.

She explained that she had just returned, by Bus, from Bangkok just after 1am and returned to her car which was parked inside the Bus Terminal in North Pattaya. She noticed that two of the tyres had been deflated. She called her friends who came to rectify the problem. She began to drive back to her home via the Sukumvit Road. A Thai Man on a motorbike drove in front of her, came to a stop, and produced a gun and shot once in the direction of her car.

She initially took no notice of the man who had stopped at the side of the road and thought a stone had hit her windscreen but soon realized it was in fact a gun shot. The shooter fled the scene when he realized she had called for assistance. Police think this was a planned attack and are looking into the personal and business life of Khun Awadar to determine a possible motive for the attack. They are also analyzing CCTV footage from various locations along the Sukumvit Road.

[britmaveric]

I was thinking it was Howard. Thank Buddha it wasnt.

[libya 115]

Khun Awadar is indeed lucky to be alive. The two deflated tyres were probably a delay tactic and she was lucky not to have been shot dead while attending to {them}. It might have just been a matter of minutes, that the gunman turned up at the bus station late, then followed her car, and took a shot at her through the windscreen.

Now she will have to put her faith in the Pattaya Police........

Edited July 6, 2008 by libya 115

[Briggsy]

Time for Khun Awadar to slip on the body armour and practise some self-censorship. It does not pay to say anything against the powers that be. In Vice City, life is cheap and death is even cheaper.

[PattayaParent]

Khun Awadar is indeed lucky to be alive. The two deflated tyres were probably a delay tactic and she was lucky not to have been shot dead while attending to {them}. It might have just been a matter of minutes, that the gunman turned up at the bus station late, then followed her car, and took a shot at her through the windscreen.

Now she will have to put her faith in the Pattaya Police........

How would he know what bus she was on????

[Briggsy]

Khun Awadar is indeed lucky to be alive. The two deflated tyres were probably a delay tactic and she was lucky not to have been shot dead while attending to {them}. It might have just been a matter of minutes, that the gunman turned up at the bus station late, then followed her car, and took a shot at her through the windscreen.

Now she will have to put her faith in the Pattaya Police........

How would he know what bus she was on????

The Bangkok Post did a feature on 'hits' and like everything else here, there is a fixed way of doing things. The hit features a number of players from the bigshot who has the power, money and position to order a hit in relative safety right down to the shooter. The shooter is normally introduced only at the very last minute. He may have been shown a photo of the 'hit' but would probably know nothing about them or the circumstances except being told they are a very bad person who deserves to die. Another member of the team would be the pointer or pointers who trail the victim and identify them to the shooter and then leave the scene before the murder. The pointer could well have been on the same bus or saw her get on the bus in Bangkok.

[libya 115]

SOURCE: Pattaya Daily News: July 7th 2008

A lot more details in this report.....

THE DANGERS OF BEING A REPORTER IN PATTAYA

For Ms Awada(Pui) Teerapolkul(32), a reporter from Pattaya Sophon Cable TV, 5 July 08 was definitely a bad hair day. First, she had two tyres let down after leaving her car at North Pattaya Bus Station and then, after having her tyres pumped up, she was shot at by an unknown motorcyclist on her way home.

Lieutenant Jirasak Apfang, Banglamung Police Investigator, was notified at 01.40 am, on 5 July, that a local reporter's car had been shot at on Sukhumvit road, Naklua, and duly sent a team to investigate. Arriving at the crime scene, police found a distressed woman driver sitting, crying beside her Toyota Yaris, on the side of the road. The windscreen had a bullet hole right through the driver's side, with the cartridge case alongside the nearby km. sign.

When police questioned the young lady, Ms Awada(Pui) Teerapolkul(32), a reporter from Pattaya's Sophon Cable TV, living at Nongplalai, she told them that before the incident had occurred, she had parked her car at the parking lot of Nakornchai Bus Terminal, North Pattaya, while she caught a bus to Bangkok. When she came back at 00.10 am and went to the parking to pick up her car, she found it had been vandalised, with both front tyres flat and the logo of the car missing.

She realized that the damage was deliberate, so she called her reporter friends to help. After fixing the tyres, all her girl friends left and Ms Awada began to drive home along Sukhumvit Road, North Pattaya. When she got to Choonlee Battery Shop, she was irritated to have a young Thai man driving erratically in front of her and sounded her horn to get him out of the way. That passed without incident, but soon after, she noticed a male motorcyclist of around 30, following her, which then began to overtake her.

As he was passing, she heard a bang which she mistook for a stone that damaged her windscreen. Pulling up to examine the damage, she was shocked to see a bullet hole in the windscreen and only then realized she'd been shot at. She was understandably frightened and, at this point, turned around and saw the assailant had stopped his bike and was looking at her, some distance away. He then sped away in the direction of Banglamung Police Station.

Still frightened, she called her friends and reporters from the media to rescue her and afterwards they reported the incident to Banglamung Police.

Ms Awada told the investigative police team she had been working for Sophon as a reporter for quite a long time. She had never previously had any serious problem with anybody, as far as she knew. She said was lucky she had not been killed or badly injured, as the assailant was obviously brutal. Police then took her to the police station to calm her down.

Police presumed that the incident could have been a case of vendetta, with the mystery assailant first following her to the bus station, waiting and then releasing the air from her car tyres, after which he kept a watch to see when she returned and then followed her, waiting for a chance to harm her. Alternatively, it might have been the antagonised, erratic motorcyclist who resented her having honked her horn at him.

Police will search CCTV footage and also investigate if there is anyone with a grudge against Ms Awada. Police are hopeful of making an arrest in the near future.

[Tarqin]

Looks to me more like a warning shot and if I was her I would heed it.