Man Dies After Being Shot Through Eye in Bar

A 23-year-old Royal Cambodian Armed Forces officer who was shot through the eye Tuesday night during a drunken argument at a Phnom Penh beer garden died early Wednesday morning shortly after being taken for emergency surgery at Calmette Hospital, officials said.

Sok Sengphin, a sergeant stationed at Pich Nil military base in Kompong Speu province, had been drinking with four friends at the Tuol Kok district bar and was sitting at a table stationed near the communal toilet when he got into an altercation with a fellow patron who was exiting the bathroom, according to deputy district governor Sang Sopheakvichet.

Witnesses told Mr. Sopheakvichet the gunman became angry because he thought the victim had looked at him askance and following a verbal altercation, pulled out a gun and shot him in the right eye.

“According to witnesses, the victim was drinking beer with four other men when an argument broke out and someone fired a single shot,” said Mr. Sopheakvichet, adding that the gunman then fled the scene on a motorbike.

“We know the identity of the gunman and are now investigating so we can arrest him and bring him to court,” said Phsar Depot III commune police chief Khat Saran, who declined to identify the suspect.

Mr. Sopheakvichet said that the drinking establishment will now be ordered to close because the owner permitted a gun to be brought onto the premises and as a result a person was killed.

He added that the victim’s body was returned to his family Wednesday morning for a funeral ceremony at his home in Battambang province’s Sangke district.

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