A policeman died instantly Sunday night when he was shot in the head at a drinking party in Mondolkiri province, according to Bosra commune police chief Soeun Sopheak.
Norng Pisith, who was shot for an unknown reason, was visiting his friends when a bullet “went through his head from the left ear to the right ear,” Mr Sopheak said.
His “god brother” is suspected of the shooting and has been detained with two other men, while two handguns have been confiscated, according to Mr Sopheak.
“We are still investigating what the motivation is of this shooting but it is a hundred percent not revenge taking because they were god-brothers,” he said, adding that no money was taken. He declined to give more details.
Mr Pisith’s death is at least the third killing of a policeman since November.
Yok Rathmany, 39, who worked for the Interior Ministry’s economic crimes police department, was robbed and shot six times on Jan 5 while inside his Lexus LX 470 SUV.
And Kep provincial police captain Hor Kim Meng, 44, was gunned down on Nov 12 by two men on a motorbike while he was seated at a street-side restaurant on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard.
Arrests have been made in both killings, which police have said were motivated by a desire for revenge.
Asked about the recent killings, Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said police officers get into conflicts like anyone else.
“They are the same as ordinary people,” he said. “They eat rice, sometimes have conflict, sometimes the target of killing.”
Although Mr Sopheak said he wasn’t aware of any special law to prosecute those who murder police officers, he said killing a cop is a serious offense.
“If the police officer was killed on duty, that is a most serious crime,” he said.
Police officers who are killed in uniform are given a posthumous promotion and the government pays for their cremation, he said.
