| |
Minder
|
Rather than "Post" an update on this story I have just used edit over the earlier story...all facts are still there..
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When a good night out turns bad - nurse injured in drive-by shooting
Connie Levett Herald Correspondent in Bangkok
June 21, 2006
It was the wrong place, wrong time for Brisbane nurse Pamela Fitzpatrick, who was shot in the back of the neck in a motorcycle drive-by shooting in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, in the early hours of Monday.
She was rushed to Smitivej private hospital in Bangkok on Monday afternoon, where she remains in a critical condition with one bullet wound to the neck.
Ms Fitzpatrick's hospital case officer, Sandy Miller, said they had imposed a "blackout on everything at the request of the family. Her father is arriving tonight [Tuesday]; that's all I can say".
The Australian consul, Robin Hamilton, who went to Kanchanaburi, 150 kilometres north of Bangkok, to assist Ms Fitzpatrick and her sister Jenny, said "she was seriously injured, critically" in the incident.
"The embassy has spoken to senior Thai police to register our concern," Mr Hamilton said.
The 26-year-old was sitting near the front of the Up 2 U bar on Kongprapa Road, when two men on a motorcycle rode slowly past the bar after 1am and randomly fired up to four shots into the tourist premises. Ms Fitzpatrick was the only person hit.
Kongprapa Road, about two kilometres from the historic River Kwai bridge, is full of bars, guesthouses and tourists. It is a popular stopping-off point for Australian tourists heading 80 kilometres north to Hellfire Pass.
A friend of Ms Fitzpatrick, Waratora Jiamjia, told Australia's Nine Network they had just arrived at the bar when the motorbike pulled up.
"I heard bang, bang, bang … and then I saw the guys on the motorbike," she reportedly said. "We saw Pam laying on the floor with her blood on the floor."
Police said they were working hard to solve the case. Two possible reasons have emerged. Firstly, that the two young men had been rejected by a girl in the bar and had returned to have their revenge, or that the bar owner was involved in a feud with locals.
Police Colonel Traiwit Namthongthai told Associated Press "the result of our investigation shows that the gunmen were targeting the owner of the bar and the motivation may have come from some personal dispute. The woman just happened to be there and was shot accidentally."
Serious incidents involving tourists receive high priority because Thailand values its lucrative tourist industry and its reputation as a relatively safe destination.
A police source said how much energy went into solving a tourist attack depended on how shocking it was, the level of pressure from the media, the country-to-country relationship and how forcefully the request was put from the embassy.
Welsh backpacker Katherine Horton was raped and murdered on Samui island on January 1. By January 18 police had charged, tried and sentenced two fishermen to death.
Two years ago, a Thai policeman was jailed for life for the double-shooting murder of two British tourists in Kanchanaburi following an argument.
Kanchanaburi police said late yesterday they were searching for the gunmen who shot Ms Fitzpatrick but so far had made no arrests.
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:12 pm on June 19, 2006
|
|
PussyLover 69
|
Report from Bangkok Post dated Thursday 22 June 2006 :-
Australian nurse dies of gunshot wounds
===============================
The Australian nurse shot in the back of the neck during a driveby shooting in a Thai bar in Kanchanaburi has died in a Bangkok hospital.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed Pam Fitzpatrick had died of her injuries.
She was shot on Monday as she and her sister sat in a tourist bar in the town of Kanchanaburi, after they had just watched the Australia-Brazil World Cup football match.
"Thai police are investigating the shooting incident", the statement said.
"We were informed that she died at about 10 p.m. Wednesday at Samitivech Hospital," said Kanchanaburi Deputy Police Chief Voraphat Vattanavisarn.
According to Australian media accounts, two men on motorcycles opened fire on a crowd of revellers who had just watched the football match in the bar, hitting Ms Fitzpatrick, apparently at random. Two versions of the shooting have emerged - that the shooters had aimed at the bar owner, or that they were "bored teenagers" randomly shooting up the sometimes violent town.
Thai police believe the assailants, two teenagers on motorcycle, were aiming at the restaurant's owner who was sitting at the counter but shot Fitzpatrick by accident as she stood in the doorway.
The culprits have yet to be identified and Kanchanaburi police have yet to confirm the motive behind the shooting.
"We've questioned the owner and he claimed to have no big enemies although he admitted to arguing with a gang of teenagers he recently kicked out of his restaurant," said Voraphat.
The owner of a rival restaurant is another suspect.
"We're still investigating the case," added the deputy police chief.
Kanchanaburi's reputation as a safe spot has been tarnished by recent attacks on tourists.
Last year, a Kanchanburi court sentenced a local policeman to life imprisonment for murdering a British couple outside another of the town's many riverside restaurants.
Police Sergeant Somchai was convicted of murdering British nationals Adam Lloyd, 25, and Vanessa Arscott, 24, on September 9, 2004.
A Kanchanaburi appeal court on Wednesday turned down Somchai's lawyer's request to appeal the sentence. Somchai's failure to appear in court to make the appeal raised suspicions that the decorated policeman has already been secretly freed, although authorities denied the rumour.
Somchai was found guilty of shooting Lloyd on the night of September 9, 2004, and then running over Arscott with his car as she attempted to escape. He finished Arscott off with his pistol.
Ironically, he had played a key role in solving the rape and brutal murder of an Irish tourist by an errant monk at a hilltop Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi about a decade ago.
Ms Fitzpatrick's father, Kevin, said his daughter's spinal cord had been damaged in the shooting.
Ms Fitzpatrick had arrived in Thailand at the weekend with her sister, Jenny, and they were visiting Kanchanaburi and the River Kwai tourist attractions.
|
Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 10:12 am on June 22, 2006
|
|
Xray
|
-Na Sorng Saan- my GF's remark to this story!!
|
Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:56 pm on June 22, 2006
|
|
Minder
|
Xray Posted on 10:58 am on June 23, 2006
-Na Sorng Saan- my GF's remark to this story!!
------------------------------------------------------------
Translation: "What a pity!"
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 11:00 pm on June 22, 2006
|
|
Minder
|
Update as of June 25th 2006...
A task force of 60 Thai police has had little success in locating the gunman who pumped up to four shots into the Up2U bar in Kanchanaburi, where Ms Fitzpatrick was drinking with Jenny after watching the Socceroos play Brazil.
The motive for the shooting is uncertain. Earlier in the evening there was a dispute between five or six local men and the operators of an adjacent bar, but police so far have been unable to tie that to the shooting.
Other reports said the incident was sparked by a man who had "lost face" when rejected by a bar girl earlier in the evening.
Since the beginning of the year, several small bars in the town have been targeted by youths in drive-by shootings. At least five people have died.
Kanchanaburi is a key tourist destination, close to Hellfire Pass and the Death Railway built by Allied and local prisoners during World War II.
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:18 am on June 27, 2006
|
|
LocalYokul
|
this may come as a shock to some of you,,, but..
Gahnjanaburi and Soopunburi are filled with gangsters (nuk leng)
some of them work for government officials, tending their farms (a front) on a day-to-day basis and then when they get a real mission they disappear and come back with lots of cash
the environment breeds more gangsters, even if they start out with petty crimes and then escalate to murder
I for one would NOT go again to Gahn. province for tourism
you'd think that the men in charge of their gangsters would keep their guys out of the public light and away from the tourists, but there are always the newbies and the loose canons
you think a Thai is dangerous behind the wheel, try giving him a gun and letting him kill for a living, power craziness just starts seething out of them
remember that policemen that shot a couple of tourists in Gahn. ?, well there you go, same MO, power and a gun, recipe for disaster, especially when fuelled by alcohol
the next motto signs they should make for Gahn. and Soopun. provinces should be "Don't Drink & SHOOT"
|
Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:27 am on June 27, 2006
|
|
| |
|
