From nuptials to nightmare

NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A wedding celebration turned to hasty funeral preparations when a respected guest accidentally shot himself in the head while trying to fire a shot into the air to welcome the groom’s procession to the bride’s home. Pol Lt Col Worote Sukger, Deputy Superintendent for Investigations of the Pakpanang District Police, received a report of the incident at 9 am on April 27. Rushing to the scene, Col Wirote and other officers arrived at a house in Village 4 of Tambon Hoolong to find more than 100 people, all dressed in their finest clothes, staring at a pool of blood and talking with disbelief about what they had just witnessed. Police learned that the pool of blood belonged to lawyer Tanin Changsakut, a resident of Bangkok’s Yannawa District. K. Tanin, 43, had traveled to Nakhon Sri Thammarat to celebrate the marriage of his young sister-in-law Rattanaporn Iamsang at his wife’s family home. As the groom’s procession, in Thai known as khan maak, arrived at the front door, K. Tanin and his wife descended the stairs for the traditional greeting. While doing so, K. Tanin pulled his 11-millimeter pistol from his waist holster, preparing to fire a shot into the air as a way of heralding the arrival of the groom’s party. But as he pulled the revolver from the holster with his right hand and released the safety with his thumb the weapon somehow discharged, firing an 11mm slug up through his chin. The bullet lodged deep inside the head of K. Tanin, who fell to the ground with a thud. As soon as they recovered from the initial shock, relatives rushed K. Tanin to Pakpanang Hospital, where he later died. An initial investigation revealed that K. Tanin was not only a famous Bangkok lawyer, but also an expert marksman who had won gold medals in club shooting competitions in the capital – and always carried his pistol with him, wherever he went. It was not reported whether the couple continued the wedding ceremony.