A veteran immigration police officer was shot to death early Sunday morning outside his Boeng Kak lake home and a retired police officer is wanted for killing him, police and family members said.
Investigators believe retired police officer King Kang Ry roused the family of Lieutenant Colonel Kang Chanthan from sleep at about 6:15 am and called him to the door of his two-story home in Daun Penh district’s Srah Chak commune, according to police reports. The two talked for five to 10 minutes, then three gunshots were fired, said municipal police chief Touch Naruth.
Kang Chanthan’s 20-year-old daughter, Kang Marinak, rushed out the family’s green gate, she said, and saw the gunman escape in a silver Toyota Camry. She said her father was bleeding profusely and gripping his stomach, where he had been hit with one bullet.
A motorbike taxi driver brought Kang Chanthan, 45, to nearby Calmette Hospital, where he bled to death by 10:15 am, family and police said.
Kang Chanthan was a 16-year immigration police veteran who worked in the visa office at Phnom Penh International Airport, said Chay Bunna, the airport’s immigration police chief.
Kang Chanthan was married and with daughters, ages 20 and 17, and an 8-year-old son. Family members, friends and co-workers mourned his death Sunday at Wat Langka before his body was returned to Calmette Hospital for an autopsy, those there said.
“I am so sorry that I have no more tears to cry,” a tearful Kang Marinak said. “My father was a very smart man, and if he said he would do something, he did it. He was a good person, so when the offender came, he did not know why he wanted to fight.”
By Sunday afternoon, police had arrested a man they believe was driving the car, and they are currently searching for King Kang Ry, said Touch Naruth. Investigators believe a land dispute triggered the shooting, he added.
