Police have yet to identify any suspects in a pair of vicious robbery-shootings in Phnom Penh late last month that left an American expatriate and a Japanese tourist hospitalized with gunshot wounds, police said Monday.
At about 7 p.m. on September 27, American construction consultant Maurice Law, 57, and his wife, Debbie, were walking home in Chamkar Mon district when two men approached them on a motorcycle, robbed them at gunpoint then shot Mr. Law in the groin before speeding away.
The following evening at about 8 p.m., Sakiko Takayanagi, a Japanese tourist, was shot in the leg when she resisted a robbery, also by two men on a motorcycle, while walking near the Night Market in Daun Penh district.
“Since the shootings occurred, military police forces have cooperated with municipal police to find the suspects…but the gunmen are still at large.” said military police spokesman Brigadier General Kheng Tito.
“We are continuing to check [CCTV] cameras, but it’s still not clear who the suspects are,” said Chamkar Mon district police chief Ouch Sokhon.
“If we find them, we will announce it publicly,” Mr. Sokhon added.
Neither Brig. Gen. Tito nor Mr. Sokhon provided any details of the investigation, and both declined to say whether police suspected that the robbery-shootings were committed by the same two men or by separate pairs of perpetrators.
Mr. Law, who has been at Calmette Hospital since being operated on the night he was shot, said Monday that the four perforations in his groin and left thigh are healing well.
“We’re doing fine,” Mr. Law said, adding that he is not sure when he will be well enough to leave the hospital.
