A Sen Sok district police officer will be sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on April 8 after he was arrested for killing his ex-wife and seriously injuring his daughter in Phnom Penh Thmey commune on Monday.

Phnom Penh municipal police’s Serious Crimes Bureau chief Heng Sophea said on Tuesday that authorities were questioning Chea Chan Bora, a Sen Sok district police officer, for shooting dead his ex-wife.

“The case falls under Sen Sok district, but it sent the suspect to me out of fear of what will happen when the suspect is also a policeman in that district,” Sophea said.

The victim, So Pov Morokot, 39, lived in a rented room in Stung Meanchey commune, Meanchey district and died on the way to the hospital while her seven-year-old daughter sustained serious injuries in the shooting and was sent to the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital.

Sen Sok district police chief Hour Meng Vang said the suspect was detained by authorities at Kien Svay district, in Kandal province, several hours after he carried out the shooting. After being detained, authorities sent him to the Phnom Penh municipal police office around midnight.

Prum Samnang, the police chief of Kien Svay district, where the suspect had escaped to, told The Post that the officers who took part in detaining him included those from the Ministry of Interior’s Criminal Police Department, Phnom Penh municipal police office, and Sen Sok district police.

He said the reason the suspect escaped to his district was that his mother and older sister lived there. He drove a motorbike there and hid at his mother’s house. Once he knew the situation was not good, he went to his older sister’s house at 11 pm on April 6. The authorities detained him there.

“Authorities asked for the reason behind the shooting, and the suspect replied that they [the police] did not know the situation in his family,” Samnang said.

According to a Sen Sok district police officer who requested anonymity, the incident happened around 8pm on Monday on St 1086, in Phnom Penh’s Thmei commune.

The suspect was seen riding a motorbike following the victim and her daughter who were in a Lexus, driven by a man. The suspect shot four bullets. One hit the victim and she died on the way to Calmette Hospital. His daughter was seriously injured in the attack.

The driver told authorities after the incident that he had driven the victim and her three kids (two sons and a daughter) to her sister’s house as she wanted to take some things there.

The suspect’s older sister said he was angry with his ex-wife for a long time for having a relationship with the driver.

She said he used to tell her that he would kill the man if his ex-wife continued the relationship, and she assumed that the driver was the target and not the victim.