Bobby Ray Carter Jr., American tourist, killed in Thailand after he refuses to stop singing at bar
Foreign tourists and locals walk by the sea at Patong beach on the southern island of Phuket, one of Thailand’s worst-affected areas by the December 2004 tsunami, on December 25, 2009.
American tourist Bobby Ray Carter Jr. was stabbed to death outside a bar at Ao Nang beach in Krabi province, Thailand, early Wednesday after he refused to stop singing with the house band.
"Witnesses said Carter got angry when the band played 'Hotel California' instead of the song he requested, and he refused to step down," Krabi city police chief Col. Taksin Pochakorn told the Associated Press.
The drunk 51-year-old Texan and his 27-year-old son then began arguing with the musicians.
“We accept that we attacked them, but we didn’t intend to kill anyone,” Ratikorn Romin, 27, one of the musicians, said in his statement to police, the Phuket Gazette reported.
Ratikorn claimed that Carter knocked their tip-box to the floor. He said that the musicians left the bar, but father and son came outside and started another argument with them.
“The father knocked me to the ground first, and I could not breathe because he was sitting on my chest,” Ratikorn said. “Then I spotted a sharp piece of metal nearby, so I grabbed it and stabbed him.”
The musicians were arrested and charged with assault and murder, Krabi city police said. They remain in police custody.
Tourists have registered a series of complaints with authorities over their treatment ranging from jet ski scams, drink spiking, robbery, assault and even police extortion.
Earlier in July an American man was slashed to death by a taxi driver in Bangkok after an apparent argument over the fare.
More from GlobalPost: Thailand tourism: Would you visit a "human zoo"?
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.