Crime
No Good Deed: Chiang Mai Expat Nic Brown Shot by Man he Tried to Help
By Casey Hynes
CHIANG MAI – The night Nic Brown got shot seemed at first a night like any other. The 35-year-old Canadian ex-pat was out with his girlfriend and some friends. The group was having a few drinks at Baan Din, a small bar in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Brown had even played the part of the Good Samaritan, helping break up a fight between a drunk Thai man and the Baan Din bar staff. After seeing the man out of the bar, Brown and his friend Ryan Powell lingered outside the bar, discussing the brawl.

The scene of the shooting in Chiang Mai’s popular Niemmenhamen neighborhood. This photo of Baa(n) Din is courtesy of TripAdvisor
They say no good deed goes unpunished, and that seemed the unfortunate case that night. The drunk man returned to the bar with a gun and opened fire as he drove past.
“I’m in the doorway perfectly framed, wearing a white t-shirt, holding up a beer,” Brown recalled. “And then suddenly five shots ring out, bam bam bam bam bam. And I got hit.”
Looking for trouble
Don Praweenmeth, who has confessed to the shooting, had been making a nuisance of himself at Baan Din that night, according to reports.
Don Praweenmeth, who has confessed to the shooting“He looked like he wanted negative attention, just in the way he was acting, [putting his] face in people’s faces, hitting on girls,” Brown said.
Powell recalled seeing Praweenmeth and thinking he was quite intoxicated.
“Me and Nic went outside to talk and I saw my girlfriend Daytona with a very drunk Thai man,” Powell said via Facebook message. “She introduced him to me. He didn’t [seem] too terribly grabby but did seem very drunk. We returned to the table and the drunk Thai man followed. A few minutes later we hear raised voices followed by pushing and then punches begin to fly. The drunk Thai man ended up on the ground and was [being] kicked and punched by a few members of the Thai bar staff.”
Tensions reportedly rose when Praweenmeth grabbed a Baan Din waitress, sparking a violent scuffle. Although Brown said he doesn’t recall weapons being used on Praweenmeth , he remembers seeing a small wooden club and a pick axe on the scene.
“I thought, ‘Holy shit, they have a little pick axe.’ That was going to be a serious problem. But the problem was coming in a few minutes.”
‘This is what it feels like to get shot’
Powell and Brown intervened and picked Praweenmeth up off the floor and walked him out of the bar.
Powell, Brown and several others were standing outside the bar debriefing on what had happened when Praweenmeth drove past the bar and began shooting.
“My back was to the street when I hear five loud bangs and smelt something that reminded me of fireworks,” Powell said. “I see Nic on the ground and he says, ‘I can’t feel my legs.’”
Brown said he knew immediately what had happened, though he at first wasn’t aware of the blood and wondered if he had been hit by a rubber bullet. When he asked his girlfriend if he was bleeding and it became apparent that both he and another friend had been shot, his girlfriend started screaming and he yelled for someone to call an ambulance. Brown’s friend Tae and one other man were also shot, though Brown was the most seriously injured.
“[Powell] was giving me the ‘Hang in there, buddy. Don’t go anywhere, man’ talk. And I was like, ‘Ah, I can’t feel my legs,’,” Brown recalled.
A friend who was at a nearby bar drove Brown to the hospital.
“I thought I remembered everything, because I remember being in the car and thinking to myself, ‘Dude, don’t die, don’t die. This is going to be a good story, don’t die.’ Apparently that whole time, my buddy Ryan was screaming at me, but I don’t remember that.”
The bullet had punctured a lung and shattered his ribs, which had in turn hit his spine, rendering him temporarily paralyzed.
Nic Brown is expected to walk again, but he faces as least one year in a wheelchair. Pic: Facebook.
Brown said he remembers arriving at the hospital and having his shirt cut off before he was taken into surgery.
“I remember waking up…and being like, Oh. OK, I’m alive. And that was it. That was the night,” Brown said.
A long recovery
Brown has since undergone another surgery on his spine, but he still cannot move his legs and does not feel much below his chest. He said he feels an occasional tingle in his leg, similar to pins and needles, but nothing else. Doctors believe he will walk again, but have estimated the time frame for his recovery at between one and four years.
“They say that my nerves will grow back and everyone is very confident that I’ll walk again,” Brown said.
For now, he has begun physical therapy for his lungs and to help prepare him to use a wheelchair when the time comes to leave the hospital.
And that’s the part that scares him now.
“There’s a whole world of depression, I think, coming towards me once I’m in a wheelchair, and out in the real world. I’m going to be a real disabled person.”
Brown has lived in Chiang Mai for one year, and had been traveling on and off for six years before he was shot. He is a freelance writer, and spent time in Palestine, India, and South Korea, among other places, before living in Thailand.
The shooter’s parents visited Brown in the hospital shortly after he was admitted. The father came the day after Brown was shot, and brought a fruit basket. Praweenmeth’s mother told Brown that her son is now in a mental hospital.
Brown said he plans to return to his native Vancouver, but not until his case goes to trial. His Thai lawyer has told him that the trial should go fairly quickly because he is a tourist, but that all depends on how Praweenmeth pleads. Brown said there are many witnesses who will attest to what happened in Baan Din that night.
In the meantime, Brown has been staying positive and said he is grateful for all the love and support friends have shown him since the shooting.
“That’s helped me so much,” he says. “I have not gotten down, I have not gotten depressed since this happened.” And that support is what he will rely on when the depression inevitably sets in.
While he recuperates, Brown will have plenty of material to keep his professional mind at work.
“I write about everything so this is just a new chapter,” he said. “It’s ridiculous, but that’s what I was thinking when I got shot: ‘Well, I can’t wait to write about this.’”
Brown now faces a mounting financial burden in medical and legal expenses. A fundraiser for Brown will be held August 9 in Chiang Mai at Bar Eve. Those outside Chiang Mai who wish to donate can do so directly through the donation site helpnicbrown.com or by contacting him directly via Facebook.

Crime
Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested for Running Scam Call Center

Police in Northern Thailand have arrested a fellow officer as he was being ordained at a temple in Ngao district of neighbouring Lampang province.
Pol Lt Col Bandit Khonkan chief inspector from the Hang Dong police station was disrobed and taken to the Chang Puak station in Chiang Mai. He was arrested on charges of running a call centre scam gang in Chiang Mai Province.
According to Thai Media Chiang Mai Provincial Police Region 5 obtained an arrest warrant for Pol Lt Col Bandit on Friday from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court for procuring illegal telecom equipment, setting up a station and using public airwaves to run a telecommunications business without permission.
Pol Lt Col Bandit reportedly told investigators that he was not the ringleader and was only a member of the gang with Chinese partners.
His arrest followed the apprehension of his 26-year-old daughter, Miss Wanuchapond, 26, and three others during raids at three housing projects in Chiang Mai on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Weerachon Boontawee, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5 told Thai media.
During the raids police police discovered around 12 GSM gateways, or SIM boxes, which are devices used for converting cellular networks into mobile phone numbers used domestically.
The chief inspectors daughter Miss Wanuchapond told the arresting officers that she was paid 8,000 baht a month at each of the three locations for renting thr rooms and monitoring devices.
She claimed she had no idea what the devices were and accepted the job because the pay was attractive.
Police investigators working with telecom regulators used a special tracking device to monitor the gang’s communications and learned that its base was in Myanmar opposite Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai.
The call center gang used the GSM gateways to make calls over the internet to scam people in Thailand out of million of baht.
The GSM gateways transmitting signals via SIM boxes to convert them into domestic phone numbers, duping victims into thinking they were being called from Thai government agencies.
Pol Maj Gen Weerachon said that each SIM box held 32 SIM cards, with a capacity of up to 300,000 calls a month. The seized devices had made fraudulent calls over 3.6 million times.
He said the their investigation is ongoing and they are working to track down the remaining conspirators, including Chinese and other Thai suspects.
Authorities are still deciding whether Pol Lt Col Bandit will be dismissed from the force, he said, adding that so far, no other officers are known to have been involved.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.
On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.
His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.
Related Police News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
Crime
Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourists Over Home Invasions

Immigration police officers have arrested four Colombian nationals in connection with a series of home burglaries at luxury housing complexes in the Bangkok metropolitan area and Chiang Buri Province.
Pol Maj Gen Panthana Nuchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, told a press briefing that three of the suspects were apprehended in Nonthaburi Province and the fourth in South Pattaya, Chon Buri Province.
According to the Bangkok Post, the Colombians were charged with stealing conspiracy and seized around 3 million baht (US$82,500.00).
According to Pol Maj Gen Panthana, the criminals rode motorcycles through housing estates, scoping out the properties and waiting for the owners to depart before committing their crimes.
He stated that all four of the accused denied any involvement in the home break-ins, but the arresting squad discovered evidence that implicated them.
Police called to home invasion
Meanwhile, police were dispatched to a luxury housing development in Tambon Nong Prue, Chonburi Province, after a Chinese man was attacked during a house invasion.
When they arrived, they discovered the house owner, Mr. Qian Peng Yi, visibly scared and with marks from being tied up with a cable. He informed police that three Chinese males broke into his home at 9 p.m., one of whom brandished a gun at him and directed him to his bedroom.
They bound his hands and feet, gagged him with fabric, taped his head, and forced him into the bed. The intruders then attempted to compel him into transferring 10 million baht in cryptocurrencies to them, endangering the life of his 33-year-old cousin who was in a second-floor bedroom.
While they scoured the house in search of riches, Mr. Peng Yi managed to flee and hide; he subsequently observed them leave with his cousin. Officials investigated the property and analyzed security camera footage from the incident and surrounding areas.
Around 9 p.m., a 30-year-old van driver came at the Bang Lamung police station after being contacted by an agency to carry Chinese customers from Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi Airport.
The driver informed authorities that he was supposed to pick them up at a motel about a kilometer from the Chinese businessman’s home. He then drove them to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, arriving at 1 a.m. and receiving 1,800 baht.
The driver took a snapshot of the group smoking at the airport gate and identified one of them as the victim’s cousin. Police suspected coordination between her and the three suspects in her cousin’s heist, who all departed Thailand on the same aircraft.
Other Bangkok News:
Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel
Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel
Crime
Son of Thailand’s Leading Legal Scholar on Corruption Arrested for Running Online Gambling Network

The son of a former senator and leading economist and expert on corruption and gambling in Thailand has been arrested for on charges of running an online gambling network and its payment system.
Police from Thailand’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) have confiscated assets worth more than (US$ 11.1 million) 400 million baht.
Narote Piriyarangsan, 33, was arrested following crackdowns in three sites around the city, according to Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, commander of the police Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).
Mr Narote’s father, Sangsit Piriyarangsan, is an economist who has written articles and books about corruption and gambling. He was one of the appointed senators that were investigating the government’s intention to legalize casino gaming before their terms expired.
Police also detained 39-year-old Narayut Narakaew, the owner of the gambling website 69pgslot.com. The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the couple for operating an internet gambling service and money laundering.
According to the Bangkok Post, police seized two desktop computers, one laptop computer, 14 mobile phones, 21 bank passbooks, 53 ATM cards, and four high-end cars — a Ferrari 926 GTS, an Aston Martin, a Lexus, and a Subaru — totaling more than 400 million baht.
Police launched the inquiry after discovering the online gambling site, which accepted funds via an automatic deposit-withdrawal system through bank accounts and deposits in the AskMePay system. Players scanned the VPay QR code as well as the QR codes for Heng Online 888 or Heng Pay Company.
Police also discovered that payments received via QR code scans were transferred to the account of Heng Pay Co and then to the gambling website’s mule accounts using AskMePay, which did not use banks’ face recognition scanning. An inquiry indicated a monthly turnover of approximately 5 billion baht.
According to investigators, the website has been up and running for around four years, with the payment mechanism in use for roughly eight months.
According to Pol Maj Gen Athip, Mr Narote owns the gaming website’s payment systems and is the director of Heng Pay Co. After gathering evidence, authorities requested arrest warrants for 14 people.
Thailand does not allow almost any kind of gaming. Even though the law doesn’t say anything specific about online gaming, it is still considered gambling. The country has pretty strict rules about gambling. Thai punters can bet on the national lottery and horse races, but they can’t bet on any other types of games.
But it’s not a secret that there is a huge illegal gaming business in Thailand, even though it’s illegal.
The illegal casinos, online betting shops, underground lotteries, and pop-up bookies that take bets on everything from cockfights to Muay Thai make a shadow economy that is worth billions of dollars every year.
Related News:
Thailand’s Cyber Crime Police Raid Top Cops Home Over Gambling Websites
Thailand’s Cyber Crime Police Raid Top Cops Home Over Gambling Websites
-
News3 years ago
Let’s Know About Ultra High Net Worth Individual
-
Entertainment2 years ago
Mabelle Prior: The Voice of Hope, Resilience, and Diversity Inspiring Generations
-
Health3 years ago
How Much Ivermectin Should You Take?
-
Tech2 years ago
Top Forex Brokers of 2023: Reviews and Analysis for Successful Trading
-
Lifestyles3 years ago
Aries Soulmate Signs
-
Movies2 years ago
What Should I Do If Disney Plus Keeps Logging Me Out of TV?
-
Health3 years ago
Can I Buy Ivermectin Without A Prescription in the USA?
-
Learning3 years ago
Virtual Numbers: What Are They For?