A provincial court official and his wife were fatally shot as they celebrated Khmer New Year in Kandal province Sunday, officials said Tuesday.
Bou Meng, 53, was a lower court clerk who was known to take bribes and cheat suspects out of money, according to his superior, Cheng Phat, a prosecutor for Kandal province.
Bou Meng and his wife, Vin Kim Nhor, 40, had been watching their children play cards late Sunday evening, Cheng Phat said. After they sent the children to bed, an unidentified gunman with an AK-47 assault rifle appeared and began firing, he said.
Bou Meng was shot eight times, said Kem Sokun, deputy police chief of Ang Snuol district, Kandal province. Vin Kim Nhor was shot seven times in the chest, and both died at the scene, he said.
Kem Sokun said the gunman might have been someone disgruntled after being cheated by Bou Meng, who sometimes posed as a prosecutor or other official in order to extract bribes from suspects awaiting trial, Cheng Phat said. “He should have been fired from his job a long time ago,” he said.
However, Vin Kim Nhor also owed as much as 700,000 riel to neighbors, another possible motive, Kem Sokun said.
Police had made no arrests and had no suspects, he said, adding that an investigation was under way.
