A THAI MAN was arrested on Koh Phangan after picking a fight and threatening a tourist with a shotgun which went off and the bullet narrowly missed his head after another man interceded and pushed it away during New Year countdown celebration, Naewna newspaper said this morning (Jan. 2).
A surveillance camera video clip shows that at 2.56 a.m. a middle-aged man dressed in black walked over to a foreign tourist who was sitting on the floor in front of a massage parlour then picked a fight with him.
However another man wearing a long-sleeved shirt walked over and stopped him, telling him to leave.
Later, this same man returned with a shotgun and pointed it at the foreign tourist’s head. Yet again the other man interceded and pushed the weapon away but in doing so a shot was fired whizzing past the tourist’s head and puncturing a hole in the massage parlour’s wall. Fortunately the tourist was not harmed.
After that he pistol-whipped the tourist on his face and the two of them fought over the shotgun. He then walked up and down the road and came back for the third time to fight with the tourist but a third man stepped in and told the tourist to go away.
Then, another foreigner rode up on a motorcycle and hugged and talked to the man in black who caused the incident.
Police arrested Mr. Den (surname withheld), 49, from Pattalung province and owner of a tattoo shop on this tourist island near the massage parlour. They also seized a registered Black Remington shotgun, a Remington shotgun stock and 18 rounds of shotgun ammunition.
Locals revealed that Den is aggressive when drunk and likes to pick a fight with other people, both Thais and foreign tourists. He had previously threatened others with a stick and a knife.
CAPTIONS:
Top: The suspect who picked a fight with a foreign tourist on Koh Phangan.
First insert: The area where the foreign tourist was threatened.
Second insert and Front Page: A shotgun, a shotgun stock and ammunition seized from the suspect. Photos: Naewna
Also read: Tourist missing as strong waves sink long-tailed boat off Koh Phangan
Koh Phangan flooded after heavy all-night rain
Myanmar fighter jets strafe Karenni refugee camp on New Year’s Eve killing three
1 dead, 12 injured in Pattani prison New Year fight
Rangsiman mocks Phumtham’s drug suppression target
Total inbound travellers soars to 140,000 a day
