One Dead, Four Injured In Phuket Pub Shooting

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One dead, four injured in Phuket pub shooting

Rescue workers tend to Songwut Decharat, who was injured in the shooting.

Photo: Wichai Witthaya

Return Pub staff are left to clean up the bloody mess after the shooting.

Photo: Wichai Witthaya

PHUKET: -- One man is dead and four others, including a woman, are injured after a pub brawl ended in a shooting frenzy in Phuket early this morning.

Lt Col Somkid Khaosang of Cherng Talay police station said police received a call at 1am saying people had been shot at the Return Pub, across the road from Cherng Talay Witthayakom School.

He arrived at the scene with fellow officers to find four men and a woman, 25-year-old Sumaporn Tontarn, wounded by gunshots.

Two men were seriously injured. Suthin Suekpamkij was shot in the head and 27-year-old Weeradet Sanohkham, from Surat Thaini, was shot several times, one of his wounds in the chest.

Kusoldham Foundation rescue workers arrived quickly and rushed all five wounded to Thalang Hospital.

Around 2am, Mr Suthin and Mr Weeradet were transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town, where Mr Weeradet died from his injuries.

The two other men, Songwut Decharat, 38, and Aran Jantawong, 24, suffered only light injuries.

Police have yet to release the name of the shooter, though officers at the scene reported that he did not try to escape.

Instead, he waited for officers to arrive at the pub so he could surrender, the police say.

Initial reports indicate the shooting followed an argument over “a woman”, they say.

At the time of writing, the police would not confirm whether the argument was over Miss Sumaporn or not.

One witness reported that the man was sitting alone and was apparently “attacked” by the group of five, all local residents, before he opened fire.

-- Phuket Gazette 2011-04-14

[LivinginKata]

Scene from the wild west. This will not help tourism if any international papers get hold of this. Songkran at it's worst.

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Soldier faces court martial over Phuket pub shooting

PHUKET: -- The man who opened fire in a Phuket pub early this morning, killing one person and injuring four others, is a soldier and will be handed over to the Military Police to face a court martial in Narathiwat tomorrow morning.

The news was confirmed by Deputy Commissioner of Region 8 Police Pisan Chuldilok, who arrived in Phuket this afternoon to personally oversee the handling of the case.

“We will continue our investigation into this as a murder case, but we will look into his claims of acting in self-defense,” Maj Gen Pisan said.

Regardless, Sgt Wisut Duongkaew, 27, will be charged with possession of his Army-issued gun when not on active duty, he added.

Sgt Wisut is stationed at the 1st Infantry Battalion Camp in Joh-Irong District, in his home province of Narathiwat.

Joh-Irong is renowned as one of the hot spots in Thailand's troubled Deep South.

Officers explained to the Gazette that the shooting ended an argument between Sgt Wisut and the five people shot.

One of the men with the group of five apparently “accidentally” bumped into the table where Sgt Wisut was sitting with five female friends, all friends of his girlfriend.

The man allegedly slammed his hand down on the table before apologizing and stumbling back to his own table to rejoin his friends.

As the staff were collecting the bills to close the bar, a war of words broke out between Sgt Wisut and the four men, police said.

One of the men allegedly walked over and smashed a bottle over Sgt Wisut’s head, before his three male friends joined the attack, police quoted Sgt Wisut as saying.

That’s when Sgt Wisut pulled out his gun and opened fire, police said.

-- Phuket Gazette 2011-04-15

[Schooner]

This sounds like a cowardly act to me. When your holding the gun and your opponents are unarmed you should only have to show it or maybe fire it into the air to get them to back off. This sounds like he went there intending to kill someone and that makes it premeditated.

[LivinginKata]

Sounds to me like a lot of drinking was involved, Drunk hothead with a gun = disaster about to happen.