Authorities in Oddar Meanchey province said they had not received any prior complaints against a border police officer who shot his two colleagues to death before killing himself in Anlong Veng district’s Trapaing Brei commune on November 6.
Commune police chief Hing Thin identified the officer as Oum Chhoy, a deputy police chief of Border Police Battalion 905’s Chong Prich Police Station. The two victims included Hun Bie, also a deputy police chief at the station, and the batallion’s intelligence chief Sreng Reasei.
“I haven’t received any complaints from the victims’ families. That might be because the offender also died,” Thin said.
Citing Chhoy’s wife, Thin said Chhoy was always moody with his wife and kids, but was never violent. Months before the shooting, Chhoy asked for his superior’s permission to get his mental health evaluated at a hospital. The results of the test are not known.
Chhoy allegedly suffered from intermittent hallucinations which disappeared after time, Thin said.
On November 6, the woman called Chhoy’s superior to report that her husband was acting abnormally and should not be allowed to use his gun. Bie then drove his car to Chhoy’s house to retrieve Chhoy’s AK-47 assault rifle.
While on his way, Bie saw Chhoy at a village and persuaded him to return the rifle. But when Chhoy was about to enter Bie’s car, Reasei appeared, prompting Chhoy to shoot Reasei twice and Bie once in his stomach. Both died at the scene, Thin said.
“Bie comforted the offender and called him to enter the car. When he [Chhoy] saw Reasei, he shot [his weapon]. He shot Reasei and then Bie.
“The offender [Chhoy] had been promoted to Chong Prich deputy police chief a week prior,” he said.
After shooting his two colleagues, Chhoy walked between 100m and 200m from the scene and shouted that he no longer wanted to live before shooting himself, Thin said.
All three men lived in Anlong Veng district, he added.
