PATTAYA: A Thai street squid vendor has asked police to find an unidentified dark skinned foreign man who she says returned to her South Pattaya stall and fired several shots from what she believes was a cap gun, minutes after her husband ordered him to leave for making sexual remarks and trying to get her to sleep with him. The suspect then fled.
Ms. Kanyarat Yenchuchit, 27, who sells grilled squid in Soi VC in South Pattaya said she reported the incident to Pattaya City Police on October 4th. The confrontation took place around noon the previous day.
According to her account, a dark-skinned foreign man of about 40 stopped at the stall while she was grilling squid, spoke with her briefly, and then invited her to sleep with him. Her husband arrived during the exchange, reprimanded the man, and told him to leave.
She said he came back less than 10 minutes later, drew a gun, and fired toward the stall. She heard four or five shots. She and others ran into a nearby house. The man shouted and then walked away, she said.
Ms. Kanyarat told The Pattaya News reporters she could not confirm the type of weapon. She believes it was a fake gun or a cap gun that produces a loud report when fired with percussion caps, rather than a live firearm. Closed-circuit cameras at the scene recorded the man clearly, she said.
She said the incident left her feeling unsafe and asked police to identify and arrest him, citing concern that he might confront other people in the same way.
Pattaya City Police had not publicly confirmed an arrest or released a description beyond the complainant’s account as of the time of her statement. Incidents of this kind are typically investigated under Thai laws covering intimidation, unlawful possession or discharge of a firearm or imitation firearm, and public disorder, depending on what forensic examination of the weapon and footage establishes.
South Pattaya’s sois are a dense mix of street food stalls, bars, and short-stay accommodation used heavily by tourists. Vendors working open stalls there have limited physical separation from passers-by, which local business owners have long cited when reporting harassment and disputes involving visitors.