Police ordered the parents of those suspected of killing three people and injuring four others in last week’s high-speed car crash and subsequent shooting spree to hand over their children, a police official said Sunday.
Reach Sokhon, the Phnom Penh municipal penal police chief, said police met with the suspects’ parents Friday, including the parents of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nephew, 22-year-old Nhim Sophea, who was allegedly involved in the incident.
But, he said, they have yet to arrest four of the five suspects.
“The offenders have escaped and are hiding in their relatives’ houses in Phnom Penh,” Reach Sokhon said.
He said he believed the suspects remain in the country, adding that police have been on a 24-hour-a-day manhunt since the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued arrest warrants last week.
“By our police expertise, we can catch them because all the suspects have been identified,” Reach Sokhon said.
One man, Than Chamroeun, 23, was charged Wednesday in Phnom Penh Municipal Court with traffic violations and intentionally killing three people in the incident.
Coconut vendor Long Mao, 19, was killed and his brother Long Lay was left in a coma after a car, traveling with three other vehicles, plowed into a parked coconut delivery truck on Sihanouk Boulevard near Phsar Olympic late Oct 27.
Following the crash, a 40-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman were shot dead when a man who had been traveling in the convoy opened fire on onlookers with an AK-47.
According to police and court officials, an arrest warrant has been issued for Nhim Sophea, the son of Hun Sen’s sister, naming him as the suspected shooter. The other suspects named were Seng Savanara, Pov Hun and a man named Pov.
Nhim Chantara, the father of Nhim Sophea and an undersecretary of state at the Foreign Ministry, on Friday promised to cooperate with police for his son’s capture and promised to pay compensation to the victims’ families, Reach Sokhon said. He added that the promises were repeated by the parents of Seng Savanara.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Minister of Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua visited Kossamak Hospital, where Long Lay was treated. She said the hospital released him late Wednesday after his family requested to bring him home to their native Takeo province.
Long Lay remained in a coma in his home in Tram Kak district’s Ta Phein commune Sunday, said Nget Sarak, 23, the owner of the coconut delivery truck and distributor to Long Lay.
Nget Sarak’s sister Nget Puthy, 28, and nephew were also at the scene of the incident and are recovering from injuries, Nget Sarak said.
(Additional reporting by Wency Leung)
