A Thai senator shot dead his cousin or wife with an Uzi submachine gun on Sunday. According to the perpetrator, 55-year-old Boonsong Kowawisarat, it is an accident.
The shooting incident took place on Sunday night at a restaurant in Phrae, about 550 kilometers north of Bangkok. Kowawisarat, a senator from northern Mae Hong Son province, dined there with his 46-year-old cousin and secretary Chanakarn Detkard.
The politician told police he wanted to show his Uzi while they waited for their meal. The weapon would have gone off accidentally and Detkard was hit in the stomach. The man was taken to hospital, but died of his injuries.
The police could not yet arrest Kowawisarat because he currently enjoys parliamentary immunity.
Source: Bangkok Post
Editorial postscript:
We've already edited the article a few times. The international press reported that it was his nephew, later that it was his secretary and niece, and a little later it was his wife.
In the first message, a UZI submachine gun was mentioned as a weapon, later it turned out to be a pistol.
Although the message made it to the world press, it is not really important news for Bangkok Post (!?!).
The Senate can waive the immunity, but that seems extremely unlikely in this case given the senator's defense.
It was reported via AFP that it would be a cousin of the senator. In the Netherlands, the Telegraaf has taken over. Bangkok Post says it was his secretary.
Who's right?
Still a cousin
BANGKOK – A Thai senator accidentally shot his cousin dead as he tried to put away the 9mm sub-machine gun that he had placed on the table during a family meal, police said on Monday.
Boonsong Kowawisarat fatally injured Chanakarn Detkard, 46, when he mistakenly fired the Uzi in a private dining area of the Garden Resort, in Phrae province, northern Thailand, on Sunday evening.
Chanakarn, who worked as a secretary to the senator, suffered a bullet wound to the stomach and died on the way to hospital, according to local police, who said about five family members were at the hotel dinner.
Police said 56-year-old Boonsong, who is a lawyer and the Senator for Mae Hong Son province in the north of Thailand, will be charged with causing death by negligence. He faces a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and a B20,000 baht fine.
“From our initial inquiry, the secretary's family will not sue because they were relatives and it was an accident – he didn't mean to do it,” a local police officer said.
Just why the senator felt it necessary to come to the dinner table armed with a submachine gun is not yet clear.
No, it was a cousin. In English, "cousin" is niece or nephew. In this case it was a woman.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Senator-charged-over-wifes-shooting-30188229.html
It was his wife according to the Nation.
And it wasn't a UZI either, but a pistol, a Jericho 941. Long live the careful reporting in Thai newspapers.
The name given to the Jericho 941 depends on the importer per country to make the product more attractive.
This weapon is also known as Uzi Eagle, Baby Eagle etc..
So when it comes to finding the truth, you haven't really done your best yourself.
I saw it with my wife on Thai TV and she said it was about his wife. A weapon was shown in the video, but it was a revolver and not an Uzi.
Strange that the reports are so different.
Maybe I'm completely wrong, but in my eyes anyone who takes a loaded Uzi to dinner at a restaurant is just mafia. Or did I miss something, and is this the latest fashion?
I don't think the senators Elco Brinkman or Roger van Boxtel in NL are doing the same 😉
I don't believe that either. The only things in those gentlemen's bags are fat files that they will go through that evening. Give me Elco and Roger…
You'd think the news would revolve around that question: what the hell is someone doing with an Uzi in a restaurant. Or is that one of the privileges of being a senator?
Yes, it's quite strange to say the least... I've heard of swords as part of the outfit (high-ranking uniform) at a gala dinner, but an Uzi?! And loaded too... That seems more like something for the mafia, Yakuza and such.
If you show your weapon, you do so in a more suitable place: shooting range, large garden (estate), etc. And then I would keep the ammunition separate, keep the weapon safe and never ever, ever point it at people but always to the ground or other 'safe' point. If someone COULD be on the other side of the barrel, you're already wrong. Safety First…
It's a bizarre story, but it seems to me suspiciously like a business dispute (family business). And I'm pretty sure that if we knew the real facts and facts, it would all turn out a little less bizarre than it is now. But one thing is, despite the great obscurity, quite certain, and that is that in Thailand (at least in this kind of business) the bottom stone will never publicly come to the surface. Unless the person in question has gathered so many political opponents who eventually throw him to the lions or decide to kill him with the truth.
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Can I give you a journalism lesson? The source must always be stated in these types of messages. There is nothing against contradictory information in itself, provided the reader knows from which source someone got that wisdom.
So according to Bangkok Post, it is about his niece and secretary. The Nation says it's about his wife.
What's the source of the weapon, Peter?
RT @RichardBarrow: CONFIRMED: The Thai senator accidentally shot someone with a Jericho 941 pistol and NOT a “Uzi 9mm sub-machine gun”!
See Twitter posts.
I've also read Barrow, but he doesn't cite a source either. He does mention that Bangkok Post now speaks of a gun.
We have already established countless times that Bangkok Post is often not the newspaper that pretends that you can trust it (The newspaper you can trust, is the motto). I once devoted an article to it.
Ah Dick, a lesson in journalism at the Telegraaf: you shouldn't check a good story to death... And: it doesn't have to be true, as long as it doesn't get us into trouble!
For the record: I myself have never worked for De Telegraaf. The statements come from the mouths of some illustrious colleagues at this newspaper.
We can therefore assume that the senator has killed ONE family member with ONE weapon, the question is why you take a weapon to a restaurant and whether there is an accident, after all, you have such a thing with you for a reason.
Another question you could ask is why isn't the whole country turned upside down? Why isn't it front page news. Imagine in the West a senator shot someone with a gun. The world would be too small. In LOS it is an industrial accident, just like the flying and slipped farang who are found dead. The life of a human being has a different value in Amazing Thailand…
I know the expression, Hans, and it does not only come from the mouths of Telegraaf journalists. Bangkok Post journalists are also guilty of it. I think they sometimes write messages based on rumours.
However, the report about the Uzi and the killed cousin is not based on hear-say, but on statements made by one lieutenant Choosak Poonsawat of the Wang Chin police station in Phrae province.
Two possibilities: that policeman was just chatting or the journalist listened very badly. A skilled journalist would in this case also tap other sources, such as the restaurant owner, the senator and witnesses. Maybe it will happen. Or would Bangkok Post turn its nose up at this kind of reporting?
@Miek37,
Maybe he was someone who was always worried that his steak wasn't well-done and had made a habit of shooting his Uzi blank in the rib eye. Just to be on the safe side 😉
Just like in the US, it is far too easy to get a firearm in Thailand. Here, too, a firearm is grabbed at the slightest thing. The difference with the US is that a gun permit can be obtained too easily there. In Thailand, a gun license is not required at all.
This therefore encourages the use of firearms by criminals and figures with an identity crisis.
You can of course also ask questions about the catering operator. Surely he must have seen that a firearm was/was on the table? And he didn't do anything about it. Finally: whether this senator (whether or not half paralyzed) shot dead his secretary, his ex, his nephew or his niece is less relevant to me than the fact that he killed someone in a completely idiotic location by tinkering (?) with a firearm. shot dead. A senator should know better.
@Teun – this is Thailand. Of course, a catering operator does not ask a senator to remove his uzi from the table. After all, that would mean a huge loss of face for the senator.
Kees,
I know losing face is a very important thing here. But I still think that the loss of face when you "accidentally" shoot someone is slightly greater than the loss of face when an operator asks you to take your uzi off the table.
@Teun - you are absolutely right about that. However, being able to achieve that requires thinking ahead, calculating risk, applied caution and logical thinking. Again – this is Thailand.
I think that's how it is.
It was his secretary, who was a cousin (Homo) and they lived together as husband and wife.
All in all, it is a typical case of irresponsible behavior by this senator. When I go out for dinner I first hand in my rocket launcher at the cloakroom, then I find a table, sit down, put my Uzi on the table and ask for the menu. But I always make sure the safety catch is on 'safe'. That is called “responsibility”. I've never had any problems.
@ Cor you forget that you also have to park your armored car neatly between the lines at the restaurant. And don't take the hand grenades inside, but put them in the glove compartment.
By the way, I bought myself a white bulletproof vest and a matching kevlar helmet. Then I also look neat when I go to eat somewhere.
A firearms license not required? So anyone can buy a firearm here in eg Chinatown?
I've been trying to buy an air rifle to shoot snakes in the garden for a while now. I don't like that because I don't see them for sale anywhere. I know firearms are for sale, but I haven't even thought about trying to buy one without papers.
I'm going to try that for fun then, I'm curious if I get a firearm.
I wouldn't do that with those hand grenades if I were you. Because my armored car was once parked in the hot sun for hours within the lines, the temperature in the dashboard has risen so high that one of the grenades has exploded. My whole armored car burned out inside. No scratches on the outside. From now on I will ask for an extra ice bucket at the restaurant. For the grenades. You can't be too prudent, Khun Peter…
Good tip Cor. By the way, since you're no longer allowed to smoke in a restaurant, I don't take my flamethrower inside either. It was always handy to light a cigar. Oh, I'm glad about the smoking ban. Smoking is said to be dangerous.
I prefer pomegranates but the sweet ones. I don't need flamethrowers because my wife can breathe fire when she finishes her somtam pedmak. Always handy for a cigarette after dinner.
If that senator is smart, he'll buy a cane with a built-in gun, much more convenient than a gun you can't handle.
This is all wattana Thai, Thai culture that we should not measure by what is and what is not customary in our country behind the dikes. An accident is in a small corner, but such a fine of Bht 20.000 is of course not a cat piss, so it is strange that this senator was not a little more careful. This makes it an expensive meal all in all. After all, you have to have it from your family in Thailand.
He or she has been shot in the stomach. He showed the weapon above the table. It seems to me that he or she was hit in the stomach. In other words, he shot from under the table. So no accident.
I actually suspect that the senator just wanted to show his political cq financial power and influence in a haughty way to his dinner companions. Occurs more often in politicians whose social position has gone to the head and does not miss any opportunity to express it.
And the guests just simulate laughing when he makes the same joke or tells a joke again, because you never know that you might need him for this or that one day, including this time when he coolly took out a gun a la James Bond.
Realize very well that it is a hypothetical reconstruction on my part because the details of the true circumstances are missing for the time being, but that this time it has gone terribly wrong, that is obvious.
Firearms do not belong in a developing society, for the reason that people are too quick to grab them in certain circumstances. Examples abound in the US and sometimes even the Netherlands.
Only in the south of Thailand do I see, for reasons of the situation, lawful private property.
Dear Michael,
It is precisely this type of reasoning that promotes unbridled gun ownership and (ab)use. Because some Muslims are apparently incapable of dialogue, peaceful coexistence, respect for other beliefs and are willing to impose their views by force if necessary, private gun ownership is not justified.
It is the government, and the government alone, that must try to stop the violence that goes with it.
After all, private gun ownership offers the temptation (also in the southern part of Thailand) to also “arrange” a bit of a tiff with the neighbor or a family member.
Moderator: I just put the word "some" for Muslims. You can't tar everyone with the same brush.