Two police officers pursuing suspected motorcycle thieves were shot dead October 18 in Takeo province during a multi-province manhunt, officials said Friday.
Police on Friday morning had made one arrest in the case and were pursuing two other suspects, said Nhem Sary, chief of police in Takeo’s Bati district.
A dozen police had deployed along National Road 3 and elsewhere in Peaream commune October 18 to apprehend three men suspected of stealing a high-end motorcycle in Kompong Speu province’s Kong Pisey district, he said.
Sao Chhoeun, 55, deputy district penal police chief, and penal police officer In Pisith, who was in his 30s, passed the three suspects, who were traveling on two motorcycles, and changed direction to pursue them.
“They were shot dead by the suspected robbers who stopped their motorcycle in the middle of the road and used an AK assault rifle to spray gunfire at our police,” he said.
Nhem Sary said that police had arrested Siv Ny, who is in his 30s, in a Peaream commune rice field. He had fled on foot after his motorcycle suffered mechanical problems, Nhem Sary said.
Siv Ny was in police custody pending his transfer to provincial court, he said, adding that funerals for Sao Chhoeun and In Pisith were held October 19.
Police in Kompong Cham province also said October 19 that they had arrested two men for the armed robbery of Sok Borin, Deputy Military Police Commander in Dambe district, who was shot three times October 17 by assailants who stole his motorcycle in Seda commune’s Kompong Riang village.
