Tourist kills himself at shooting range

CHALONG: A 50-year-old Japanese tourist yesterday killed himself with a pistol he rented at the Phuket Shooting Range near Chalong Circle. Pol Capt Chockchai Sutthimek of Chalong Police Station said Yoichi Hashimoto went to the Phuket Shooting Range on Wednesday morning. He looked around and left. He returned the following morning. According to a witness, he hung around until the afternoon when there were only a few people at the range, then paid 600 baht to rent a .38 pistol and buy 10 bullets. Mr Hashimoto fired off five shots at a target, then reloaded the pistol, put the muzzle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The bullet exited through the back of his head, killing him instantly. Capt Chockchai said the cause of Mr Hashimoto’s suicide remains unknown, but police suspect he may have taken his life because he had no money. “I believe that he was broke,” Capt Chockchai explained, “because I found a ticket issued by a Phuket Town pawnshop in his pocket. It showed that he had pawned a watch and a lighter for 800 baht on Tuesday. “I don’t know whether he was sick before he died because I don’t have any information about him. Nobody here knew him.” Mr Hashimoto came to Thailand on December 14, last year. His visa expired on February 1. His body was taken to the morgue at Wachira Hospital to await collection by relatives in Japan.