Sons of Phnom Penh’s rich and powerful killed three people and injured four Monday night after one car in their four-vehicle convoy slammed into a coconut truck, leading a member of their party to spray bystanders with gunfire, police and witnesses said.
Penal Police Chief Reach Sokhon said Tuesday that the group was coming from a birthday party at the Chamkar Mon district villa of a high-ranking official when the accident occurred on Sihanouk Boulevard between 10:30 and 11 pm.
“They were a little drunk,” Reach Sokhon said.
He declined to name the host of the birthday celebration.
Kampot province native Nget Sarak, 23, was standing on top of his truck unloading coconuts when the Toyota Corona hit his vehicle. He said he fell to the ground and was slightly injured, but his 29-year-old sister and 18-year-old nephew were seriously wounded by the impact.
The crash killed coconut vendor Long Mao, 19. His brother, Sun Lai, 20, was also hit and injured. As of Tuesday afternoon, Sun Lai was paralyzed, unconscious and relying on an oxygen pump, his relatives said.
Long Mao’s cousin, 24-year-old Ou Narith, recalled Tuesday the four cars speeding west down Sihanouk Boulevard. He said the driver of the Corona was trapped by an airbag after the wreck.
Ou Narith said the other three cars parked and men got out to help their friend. He said one man began shouting at bystanders, “Go away! Go away! I will kill you all!”
The man then went to his car, retrieved an AK-47 and fired at the observers. The shots hit Ou Sitha, 40, and an 18-year-old woman, Phal Vanny, who were driving by.
They both died after being hospitalized, Reach Sokhon said. A third passenger in their car was wounded.
According to the police report, 12 spent shells were found at the scene.
“If the police had arrived at that time, the police would have been killed too,” Ou Narith said.
Then the men freed their friend from the Corona and, unable to drive the smashed car, removed its license plate. More shots were fired as the revelers departed, he said.
“We are from the countryside. To die here like a dog, nobody takes responsibility for this, including the government,” Ou Narith said. “I don’t want to come to the city again to sell coconuts. My life here is treated like garbage.”
The families of Ou Sitha and Long Mao, angry and bereaved, gathered at the Wat Preah Puth crematory Tuesday afternoon.
A relative of Ou Sitha, who asked not to be identified, voiced dismay.
“We do not trust the judicial system in Cambodia to punish these criminals, because they belong to a group of high-ranking families. It is not the first time they have committed these crimes,” he said.
Ou Sitha left behind four young children, the relative said.
“I am very poor. I don’t have any income. That is why I sent my sons here,” said Long Mao’s father. “It looks like I sent them here to be shot for the amusement of the senior officials’ sons.”
Reach Sokhun identified the driver of the wrecked Corona as the son of a Daun Penh district restaurant owner.
He said that another suspect, the son of a gold dealer at Meanchey district’s Phsar Chbar Ampov, has been “invited” to meet with police.
“We hope to find out more suspects,” Reach Sokhon said, adding that border police and security at Phnom Penh International Airport have been put on special alert.
Last December, at a graduation ceremony at the Royal School of Administration in Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Hun Sen urged government and law enforcement officials to exert better control over their children. He noted that many gang members “rely on the power of their parents to behave oppressively against children of the powerless.”
