BANGKOK, Thailand: A French tourist was gunned down early Wednesday by an off-duty Thai cop after a drunken bar fight in a seedy Bangkok district, police said.
The 41-year-old Parisian was shot dead at a downtown apartment block after an altercation with the police sergeant major who had approached the tourist’s Thai girlfriend.
“They were drunk... they started to argue and then had a fist fight but the policeman couldn’t fight back,” the Chief of Thailand’s Immigration Police Surachate Hakpan told AFP.
“The policeman followed him back to his place and shot him twice,” he said, adding the victim had been in Thailand for several months.
The officer has been arrested and “will be fired... and prosecuted on a murder charge,” Surachate added.
Police are hunting a second suspect seen on CCTV.
Gruesome pictures circulated on Thai media showed the victim lying in a pool of blood in front of a doughnut shop at his apartment block.
Bangkok is one of the world’s most visited cities, famed for its food and racy nightlife, much of it around Nana district where the murder took place.
Thailand has a grim reputation for its gun culture, with drunken arguments, business disputes and soured romances frequently resolved by violence.
French tourist shot dead in Bangkok by off-duty Thai cop
French tourist shot dead in Bangkok by off-duty Thai cop
- The Parisian was shot dead at a downtown apartment block after an altercation with a police sergeant major
- Policeman followed him back to his place and shot him twice
Ukraine contacted Musk’s SpaceX over Russian drones using Starlink
- The Russian army used Starlink satellites to guide its drone attacks deep into Ukraine
- ISW said “Russian forces are increasingly using Starlink satellite systems”
KYIV: Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Thursday Kyiv was in contact with Elon Musk’s SpaceX over allegations that Russian drones were using Internet from Starlink satellites during attacks on Ukrainian cities.
“Within hours of Russian drones with Starlink connectivity appearing over Ukrainian cities, the Ministry of Defense team promptly contacted SpaceX and proposed ways to resolve the problem,” Fedorov said on social media.
“I’m grateful to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and personally to Elon Musk for their swift response.”
Fedorov and the US-based Institute for the Study of War said earlier this week that the Russian army used Starlink satellites to guide its drone attacks deep into Ukraine.
Russia has been battering the country’s energy grid as temperatures tumble below freezing and the invasion’s fourth anniversary looms.
The ISW said that “Russian forces are increasingly using Starlink satellite systems to extend the range of BM-35 strike drones to conduct mid-range strikes against the Ukrainian rear.”
Starlink is also widely used by the Ukrainian army for communications.
“Elon Musk’s decision to urgently activate Starlink and send the first batch of terminals to Ukraine at the start of the full-scale invasion was critically important for our country’s resilience,” Fedorov said.
“Western technologies must continue to support the democratic world and protect civilians, not be used for terror and the destruction of peaceful cities.”
