The chief of police of Prey Veng town’s Svay Anthor district was charged with murder by the provincial court on Saturday after allegedly fatally shooting an unarmed man in the head during a raid on a cockfight last week, police said.

Seng Sophak, a Prey Veng deputy provincial police chief, said that suspect Pum Kann had maintained in court that he had not intended to kill victim Keh Im, 37, who had been holding his infant son at the time, and who reportedly had not even been attending the cockfight.

Describing Kann’s answers in court, Sophak said the chief had drawn his gun as cockfight attendees began to “rush out”, but the pistol fired prematurely.

“I did not pull the trigger,” Sophak quoted Kann as saying. Kann had initially claimed he had simply fired a warning shot in the air, an account disputed by multiple witnesses.