'I went on a 45-day holiday with the Washington shooter'

When a 30 year old Thai woman called Om Suthamtewakul met the US military contractor at Bangkok’s international airport last year, she said the towering African-American made a perfectly acceptable first impression.

“He spoke very good Thai. I was relieved because we wouldn’t have to worry about communication. He also bought me a present, even though we hadn’t met before. Yes, he bought me a present,” she said.

Ms Suthamtewakul, a noodle stand worker in north Bangkok, was asked by her brother, Nutpisip Suthamtewakul, to look after the American while he holidayed in Thailand. She told her brother: “Sure, no problem, I’ll show him around.”

Still, she had been asked to look after one Aaron Alexis, the 34-year-old responsible for a murderous rampage in a naval base in Washington. Alexis had worked at Mr Suthamtewakul’s Thai restaurant in Texas and the two men also lived together for several years.

As the designated tour guide, Om Suthamtewakul would spend 45 days with Alexis. She said she took him to a number of tourist spots, like the beach resort of Hua Hin and the picturesque northern city of Chang Mai, but what really interested the US Navy reservist were Thai women.

“When the evening came, he always wanted to go massage parlour – so we went together. I dropped him off and then waited to pick him to take him home to bed. For an entire month it was like this,” said Ms Suthamtewakul.

The Thai food vendor said she had to intervene with prostitutes on several occasions after they tried to cheat Alexis out of his money. But the US military contractor’s enthusiasm for massage parlours was not diminished by such experiences, she said.

“Most of his money went on (them). He didn’t spend much on eating. He didn’t pay for accommodation. Most of it went on women.”

These trips to some of Bangkok’s less salubrious establishments would cost the American any chance of a relationship with Ms Suthamtewakul’s niece, called An.

Alexis developed a “real crush” on An as they celebrated Thailand’s New Year Songkran festival together and he later asked her to come back to the United States to live with him. Still, there were several major problems – Ms Suthamtewakul said her niece did not like black men – although that was not the only obstacle.

“That was part of it, but second, (Alexis) went to massage parlours and An doesn’t like that,” she said.

Ms Suthamtewakul and Alexis based themselves in a modest family-owned house in Bangkok for the majority of his vacation and the 30-year-old Thai woman said she never felt scared of him: “He wasn’t a cruel man when he was with me. He was crazy – but in a fun way. Maybe it was because he was on holiday.”

He drank copiously in the evenings, mixing whisky with a Thai herbal drink called Rosella while playing Angry Birds – a popular computer game on his laptop. However, she said she did not see him playing violent video games.

It seems the US military reservist knew how to handle a weapon however.  She took Alexis to a popular amusement area called Suan Siam where he took a shine to one of the carnival-style shooting games.

“We played a shooting game with the cardboard targets and he was really good at it. When he shot, he always got (the pellet) in the centre. When he shot he put it in the middle of the target,” she said.

Ms Suthamtewakul said she rarely saw Alexis get angry or annoyed but she noticed that the 34-year-old New York native often complained of discrimination and bias against black people.

“He said white people don’t like black people (in America). But he didn’t say why in detail. He just said white people dislike black people.”

The noodle-stand worker suggested that a shared experience of racial discrimination was a key part of her brother Nutpisit’s friendship with Alexis. “That’s why my brother and him were such close and good friends,” she said. “They probably understood each other.”

Ms Suthamtewakul’s recollections shed little light on the mental deterioration that Aaron Alexis seems to have suffered in the weeks before the shooting on Tuesday. She says she was “shocked and surprised” by the news.

“I was surprised, because he told me he really wanted to come to live in Thailand,” she said.

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