Reporter beaten and shot dead after karaoke row
Published: 29/09/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News
A Thai Post reporter has been brutally beaten and shot dead in Nakhon Pathom's Muang district.
Witnesses said Prachuab Pengruang, 50, was dragged from a karaoke parlour about 2am yesterday and beaten by two men with beer bottles and then fatally shot.
Police said he was shot in the chest with a 45-calibre pistol.
The witnesses said Prachuab had been drinking beer at the karaoke parlour when two men walked in and sat down near him.
An allegedly drunken Prachuab was said to have approached the two men and asked one to sing with him.
The man declined and Prachuab tried to clink glasses with the man but knocked over a glass of beer on their table.
Prachuab then yelled at the man over the microphone and the man is said to have become enraged and knocked Prachuab to the ground. The two men dragged Prachuab outside and hit him over the head with beer bottles. One of them then shot Prachuab before fleeing, witnesses said.
Police said the suspected killer had been identified simply as Manit, 40, They said Mr Manit shot dead a truck driver in the area about two months ago and surrendered to fight murder charges before being released on bail.
Police said they expected to make an early arrest.
A close associate of Prachuab said he was the editor of a local newspaper as well as working as a Thai Post reporter.
He also ran a housing estate business in Nakhon Pathom. The associate said the killing of Prachuab might have been linked to a business conflict as he had often defaulted on payments to building contractors.