Reporter’s “assassin’ nabbed

PATONG: Police have arrested a man in Bangkok who they say executed newspaper and TV reporter Surapong “Ord Patong” Rittee in a Patong convenience store for a fee of 60,000 baht. Officers say that the manager of a Patong go-go bar ordered the February 11 killing because K. Surapong reported on lewd entertainment at the venue that led to its closure. Police are now hunting the bar’s manager. Pol Col Ronapong Saikaew, Superintendent of Investigation of Surat Thani Provincial Police Region 8, told the Gazette today that the police arrested the alleged gunman, Amornpol “Paew” Promkerd, 40, as he walked alone in Bangkok’s Don Muang District. He was brought to Phuket on Saturday for questioning. The police followed Paew in Bangkok for two weeks before closing in. “It seems he was employed as a hired gunman on two or three cases a year and spent that money on his family, which includes his three children,” Col Ronapong added. “This man is an assassin. He seems to have knowledge about the law and it seems he has a private lawyer, too.” Col Ronapong said that at the time of his arrest, the gunman was out on bail on a charge of attempted murder of a prosecutor at Nakhon Sri Thammarat last year. He is now being held at Kathu Police Station. K. Surapong, 43, was gunned down by two .38 rounds fired close to his left ear as he was walking out of the Aree Karnka mini-mart on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd at 3:30 am on February 11. A reporter for Thai Rat and Siang Tai daily newspapers and TV Channel 3, he had many business interests around Patong, including a cigarette dealership and a prawn farm, as well as rental housing and connections with the entertainment industry.