Cop facing murder charge after French tourist shot dead

Emergency responders remove the body of the French tourist shot dead on the first floor of the Trendy Office & Plaza building on Soi Sukhumvit 13 by a drunken policeman early on Wednesday morning. (Rescue Vajira photos)

A policeman has been sacked from the force and will be charged with the murder of a French national shot dead in the first floor lobby of a residential building in Bangkok early on Wednesday morning.

Pol Sen Sgt Maj Kantapong Huadsri, 49, of Bangkok's Lumpini police station, is alleged to have followed and slain Malik Djamel, 41, after losing a drunken fist fight with the French tourist at the Lucky Shot Food and Sport restaurant on Soi Sukhumvit 11/1,

Djamel was killed on the first floor of the Trendy Office & Plaza building on Soi Sukhumvit 13.

Jawanjira Nutakrai, the dead man's 32-year-old Thai girlfriend, said Djamel was a frequent visitor to Thailand. The two men had known each other for nearly a year.

She said they were drinking in the bar together. Djamel had become jealous because she was talking to the policeman. The two men then began to brawl.

Witnesses said the policeman was on the losing end of the fist fight and later followed Djamel back to the condominium building, where he stayed, and shot him dead on the first floor.

The Frenchman was shot twice, in the chest and hip.

The shooter fled the scene, but later surrendered and was being interrogated, pending charges being laid.

Pol Maj Gen Mongkol Warunno, commander of the Metropolitan Police Division 5, said the man had been sacked from the police force.

Pol Lt Gen Sutthipong Wongpin, the Bangkok police chief, said the sacked policeman would be charged with murder.

He said the suspect was already defending himself in court in another case, in which he had shot another person six years ago.

Pol Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, immigration police commissioner, confirmed both men were drunk. He said the victim had been staying at the residence for some months and was looking for a job.

Pol Sen Sgt Maj Kantapong had confessed to the crime, he said.