Policeman kills karaoke critic

BANGKOK (AFP): A police officer has confessed to killing one man and attempting to kill another because they didn’t like his karaoke performance, police said today. Pol Cpl Jirawat Sangworn, 25, has admitted both charges, claiming he was provoked by the victims’ booing and name-calling when he was about to sing the same song – a sentimental Thai ballad – for the fourth time in a row. Enraged, he pulled out his service revolver and shot the two men. The spokesman said the man who died was shot twice, while the other victim was seriously injured with four gunshot wounds. Jirawat fled on his motorcycle, but turned up a few hours later at the National Police Office headquarters, where he worked as a clerk. “The suspect confessed that he just could not stand the teasing,” a police spokesman said. Jirawat had been singing karaoke in the early hours of yesterday in Bangkok’s Huay Kwang district, a major nightlife area filled with massive karaoke clubs.