A 37-year-old woman was shot dead Monday while breastfeeding her 4-month-old daughter at her Kompong Cham province home in what police believe was a revenge killing born of a marital dispute.
Mom Heng was shot once in the chest and once in her right eye as she nursed her daughter who was left with minor burns from the impact of the bullets.
The woman’s 11-year-old daughter, who was also in the house at the time of the attack, was unharmed, provincial police chief Nuon Samin said by telephone Wednesday.
“This is a very cruel act…. Our police cannot sleep well,” said Nuon Samin, adding that his officers are looking for two men whose identities are known, but he declined to give further details.
Ponhea Krek district police chief Prak Bunonn said the attack took place at about 8 pm Monday evening when two men drove up to the woman’s small wooden house in Trapaing Phlong commune where she supported herself by selling groceries.
One of the men entered the house and spoke with the woman for a few minutes before opening fire at close range, while the second man waited on a motorcycle outside the house, Prak Bunonn added.
The woman’s 11-year-daughter, who opened the door to the killer, told police that she didn’t recognize the men because it was too dark, but she said that her mother appeared to have known the shooter, he said.
Prak Bunonn said that an initial investigation pointed to a “love triangle,” as the slain woman’s eldest daughter was from her ex-husband years ago, and the 4-month-old child was with another man who is married to another woman.
“[We] vow to arrest them because we have the suspects’ identities,” he said, adding that the woman’s orphaned daughters have been sent to live with relatives.
