Recovering after being shot while driving his motorcycle on tourist-packed Sisowath Quay early Tuesday evening, Chea Serey Vuth, 35, said he has no idea who fired the bullet that lodged in his leg, or why.
He also doesn’t want to find out, being simply glad to be alive and that his pregnant wife, who was on the back of his motorcycle, was not hurt by the gunfire at about 7pm.
“I don’t know who shot me,” he said. “I want it finished. I don’t want to have trouble in the future.”
Several witnesses said Thursday that moments before the bullets started to fly, a tuk-tuk pulled onto Sisowath Quay, nicking the front bumper of a 2008 Land Rover.
Three men dressed in bodyguard uniforms got out of the SUV, which did not have license plates. One of them fired at the tuk-tuk with a handgun, but the bullets missed and hit a passing motorcycle driver, they said.
“A man in a bodyguard unit uniform aimed and shot twice at the tuk-tuk driver,” said Van Tha, 34, who works as a guard for a riverside restaurant. After shooting the passer-by, the bodyguards got back in their vehicle and chased after the tuk-tuk.
Bookseller Ny Peou, 46, said she ducked after seeing the weapons.
“The bodyguards got out and shot at the [tuk-tuk] driver,” she said, adding that police arrived shortly after.
Daun Penh district police chief Vim Sochet said Thursday that he was unaware of the shooting, and municipal tourist police chief Rean Vichet said he doubted it even happened.
“We did not hear any shots,” he said, adding that his officers are posted 24 hours a day outside Wat Ounalom—50 meters from where the bodyguards in the SUV opened fire.
However, Mok Sopha, Phsar Kandal 1 commune police chief, confirmed there had been a shooting. But, he added, his officers had no information to work with and the investigation is closed. “We did not see anything when we were there because they all left,” he said.
