Kompong Cham provincial police on Sunday identified suspect Nay Han, 27, as the armed guard they are seeking in Friday’s shooting death of a rubber plantation worker who had reportedly been attempting to steal latex.
Seng Sokim, deputy provincial police chief, said officers also confiscated 15 AK-47 assault rifles Saturday from the guards at Chamkar Andaung rubber plantation at the request of provincial Governor Hun Neng.
“Only 5 kg of resin and he was killed,” Hun Neng said of the death of Phlech Nol, 23, originally identified by police as Muth Nol. “We will take all the guns from the guards,” he said.
The killing sparked protests Friday night by over 300 villagers in Chamkar Leu district, who reportedly burned down a guard house at the plantation as well as the home of chief guard Pov Ra before setting fire to the home of the plantation director, which was only partly damaged.
The plantation’s management could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Phlech Nol was married with a one-year-old daughter, his brother Prak Kim Yan said. “Let the authorities arrest the killer. Compensation must be paid,” Prak Kim Yan said.
On Saturday, a company representative paid the victim’s family $250 and contributed two sacks of rice toward the funeral, Seng Sokim said.
Local rights group Adhoc identified the alleged shooter as plantation guard On Sok Heng, 38, who reportedly kicked a motorcycle, on which the victim was a passenger, to the ground.
The guard then allegedly fired three rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle, striking Phlech Nol once in the left side of the head, said Chan Soveth, Adhoc monitoring section officer.
Armed plantation guards in Kompong Cham province were involved in 10 incidents in 2005 and two of these cases were fatal shootings, he said.
