An unidentified gunman was beaten to death by a mob Tuesday night outside Sorya Shopping Center in Phnom Penh, after shooting one student and attempting to steal a motorbike, police said Wednesday.
Two students from Bak Touk high school were pulling their motorbike out of the shopping center’s parking space at 8:50 pm when a man pulled a gun and demanded the keys to the bike, said Yim Socheat, Daun Penh district deputy police chief. “The driver gave the keys to the gunmen, but his friend tried to grab the K-54 handgun and the offender shot twice,” Yim Socheat said.
One bullet hit the friend, Tuon Cok An, 19, in the stomach and the second bullet hit the ground, he said. After his friend was shot, the driver, Pich Senglong, 17, wrestled the gun from the gunmen’s hand, he said.
By that time a crowd had gathered, Yim Socheat said. When the crowd realized the offender, who appeared to be in his late 20s, was no longer armed they attacked, beating him to death before police arrived, according to the police report. “Police arrived within five minutes of the report, but the offender was already dead,” municipal Penal Police Chief Reach Sokhom said.
Tuon Cok An is critically injured and remains in Calmette Hospital, the deputy police chief said.
Police confiscated the K-54 handgun and the victim’s motorbike for investigation, but have declared the case an armed robbery, Yim Socheat said.
