MAE HONG SON
Canadian tourist is shot dead
Policeman faces murder charge after scuffle with drunk couple

MAE HONG SON: -- A Canadian tourist was shot dead and his wife wounded early yesterday morning near a pub in Mae Hong Son province after a scuffle with a policeman.

Pol Sgt-Major Uthai Dechawiwat claimed shots were fired accidentally after the foreign couple tried to snatch his pistol from him.

The 37-year-old policeman, who was released on bail after being charged with murder and manslaughter, said he had struggled to get his service pistol back from John Leo Del Pinto and his wife Carly Reisig.

He said he had used the gun to threaten them when he was down on the ground after the couple beat him up.

Del Pinto, 25, took a shot in the mouth, from which the bullet travelled through his shoulder, and another shot on the left side of his torso, while Reisig, 24, was shot on the left side of her torso.

Uthai initially fled but give himself up to Pai police not long afterwards.

Quoting witnesses, case investigator Pol Lt-Colonel Sombat Panya said the couple had been drinking in a local pub called Ting Tong. They became involved in a drunken brawl after Del Pinto, who recently arrived in Thailand, found out that Reisig had become pregnant with a Thai man known as Fuen.

The couple continued arguing after they left the pub when Uthai arrived at the scene, near a bridge, on personal business. Uthai approached them and asked them to be calm but both foreigners turned to attack him.

The officer said Uthai was beaten to the ground by the couple. After managing to get up, Uthai pointed his service pistol to threaten away both foreigners, but Del Pinto tried to snatch the pistol from him. After a scuffle, shots were fired and the couple went down.

Del Pinto died at the scene at about 2am and Reisig was sent to a hospital in Chaing Mai, where she is in a safe condition.

Sombat said he had not interviewed Reisig about what happened and no offence had yet been filed against her.

The Nation - 2008/01/07

Police investigators said they had yet to get the wife's side of the story. The Thai police have had a number of clashes with tourists in recent years. The most notorious being when two young British backpackers got into an argument with a policeman at his restaurant in Kanchanaburi in 2004.

The policeman followed the couple down the street in his car, shooting the man Adam Lloyd, then running the girl down in his car Vanessa Arscott, before also shooting her.

Aksel was lucky then ....

One4All4Ever said:

He's down south in Phuket now, I think.

This was in Pai, quite possibly the most beautiful place in the whole country. Eye witness accounts coming in on the ex-pat forums paint the picture as such. The couple were drunk, arguing about her apparent pregnancy by a Thai man, which carried over into the street. The policeman, in plain clothes and drunk, saw the commotion and intervened. The Canadian man, almost certainly not realising the Thai man was a policeman, pushed him and he fell over a motorbike. The policeman stood up and shot twice at the Canadian man and once more at the woman. Sounds like a classic case of 'losing face' for a Thai, a situation so grave any foreigner should do his utmost to avoid it.

fhqwhgads said:

This is so inherent to Asian culture, not only Thai but certainly Chinese and Japanese too, it should be covered in every Travel guide to the area

I had my father-in-law losing face cuz he had to accept me into the family
[Edited 1/7/08 3:06am]

One4All4Ever said:

Oh.

Wait, so what's your story?

You folks don't understand.


I can NOT lose face to white people. I must do something to defend my honor.

fhqwhgads said:

In short, my wife is Chinese. She was thrown out of the house when she started dating me because her father found he lost face with a foreigner (farang is how ou call it if I remember well, Chinese is lao wai) in his family. Losing face is major in Chinese culture.

Same goes for a friend (Chinese) of mine who cancelled his wedding with a Chinese girl at the last minute. Her parents were furious and went out of the way to save face. Their daughter now was used goods and ended up marrying an adopted Korean. And I got a few other stories like that