A police officer who allegedly shot two men to death and injured three others in a revenge attack at a neighbor’s house in the capital last week was charged with murder on Friday, a court official said yesterday.
Deputy municipal prosecutor Hing Bunchea said the court had charged Meas Vonsaneath, a 44-year-old police officer in Sen Sok district’s Khmuonh commune, with the murders of his neighbors Long Hun, 47, and Long Lyheng, 17, at their house in Phnom Penh Thmei commune.
“I charged him…with the intentional murders on Friday,” Mr Bunchea said, adding that he was still conducting investigations into the incident.
“Other parties are under investigation because the [murder] suspect was hurt before he started shooting,” he said.
Police allege that Mr Vonseaneath opened fire with an AK-47 rifle on a party of seven men at Mr Hun’s house last Tuesday after having a heated argument with them earlier in the day.
Mr Hun and his son were killed in the shooting while three other guests suffered minor injuries. Police allege the men at the Long household had armed themselves in anticipation of Mr Vonseaneath’s return and assaulted him before he started shooting.
Municipal penal police chief Chuon Narin said yesterday that members of the victims’ family were under investigation for assaulting Mr Vonseaneath before he opened fire on them.
“Now [Mr Vonseaneath] is in prison and receiving medical treatment because his head was badly injured when the victims hit him using wooden sticks and axes [before he started shooting],” Mr Narin said by telephone yesterday.
