Wife describes slain journalist’s close call

Thursday, 20 September 2012
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

The son of a provincial military police commander sideswiped journalist Hang Serei Oudom’s car with his government vehicle months before Oudom was found hacked to death in the back of a car in Ratanakkiri province, his widow and her lawyer said yesterday.

The officer, King Seanglay, was singled out for ties to illegal logging in the last story Oudom wrote for his newspaper, Vorakchun Khmer, on September 6. Oudom disappeared three days later.

Seanglay was briefly questioned along with a dozen others about Oudom’s murder, but investigators released him the same day.

Song Bunthanorm, chief of the serious crimes police office in Ratanakkiri province, said he did not know whether the journalist and Seanglay had a dispute with each other.

Ratanakkiri duo charged in death of reporter

(Photo: RFA)

Monday, 17 September 2012
Kim Yuthana
The Phnom Penh Post

A Ratanakkiri provincial court has charged a married couple with premeditated murder in the grisly killing of Vorakchun Khmer newspaper reporter Hang Serei Oudom, whose body was found axed to death in the back of a car last week.

The suspects, An Bunheng and his wife, Sim Vy, own a karaoke bar in Banlung town, where the victim lived. The police have previously said that a number used to call Oudom could belong to Bunheng.

They were arrested on Thursday at the provincial military police headquarters. Several others, including the son of the provincial military police chief, were also detained for questioning but released later.

Military links to journalist

An Bunheng's wife (Photo: RFA)

Friday, 14 September 2012
Chhay Channyda and Joe Freeman
The Phnom Penh Post

Two military police officers and one of their wives were detained for questioning yesterday in connection with the unsolved slaying of Ratanakkiri province Vorakchun Khmer newspaper reporter Hang Serei Oudom, local authorities said.

Em Vun, Banlung town police chief, told the Post that provincial police and investigators from the Ministry of Interior confronted Captain An Bunheng, aka Eng, at the provincial military police headquarters in the morning.

According to rights group Adhoc, police later detained Bunheng’s wife and King Seanglay, the son of a provincial military police commander and the subject of Oudom’s last article in which allegations of illegal logging were levelled at Seanglay.

Several others were briefly brought in for questioning and later released, but as of yesterday evening, the three remained in custody.

Suspects Nabbed in Reporter’s Death

Police search for evidence in the murder of Hang Serei Oudom in Ratanakiri province, Sept. 13, 2012. (RFA)

Wife of An Bunheng and fellow suspect 'Vy,' in an undated photo. Credit: RFA

Cambodian police detain a married couple they say have links to the journalist’s murder.

2012-09-13

Radio Free Asia

Cambodian authorities on Thursday detained two suspects linked to the slaying of a journalist investigating claims of illegal logging amid calls by an international press watchdog to determine whether the murder was connected to his coverage of environmental concerns.

Military officer An Bunheng and his wife, known by her nickname "Vy," were taken into custody after police and a court prosecutor said they had found evidence at the couple’s restaurant in northeastern Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province—the last known whereabouts of victim Hang Serei Oudom before he went missing on Monday.

On Wednesday, authorities found Oudom dead in the trunk of his car, which was parked in a cashew nut plantation in the north of the province about a week after he had published an article accusing a local military police officer of extorting money from an illegal logger in the area.

Police said the journalist had apparently died from a series of axe blows to the head.

Among the evidence collected by authorities on Thursday from the restaurant were a pair of Oudom’s shoes abandoned about 65 feet (about 20 meters) from the establishment, an assortment of knives, and “other” evidence.

Journalist’s murder still under investigation

(Photo: DAP-news)

Thursday, 13 September 2012
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

The editor-in-chief of Vorak-chun Khmer newspaper said yesterday he could not make any assumptions about the motive behind the murder of journalist Hang Serei Oudom, whose body was discovered on Tuesday.

“Most of his reports were about illegal logging. Other stories were traffic accidents and protocol news,” Rin Ratanak said, highlighting that Oudom covered a variety of topics.

Ratanak did point out that Oudom’s most recent article in the Ratanakkiri province newspaper before his death implicated the son of a provincial military commander in illegal logging activities.

Oudom, 44, disappeared on Sunday when he left his house about 7pm for a meeting.

Cambodian journalist found dead in his own car

(Photo: DAP-news)

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists

Bangkok, September 12, 2012--Cambodian authorities must immediately investigate the murder of a journalist who was found with ax wounds in the trunk of his car on Tuesday, less than a week after he had exposed an alleged military connection to the illicit timber trade, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The body of Hang Serei Odom, a reporter for the Khmer-language Virakchun Khmer Daily newspaper, was found in his car at a cashew plantation in the O'Chum district of northeastern Ratanakiri province, according to news reports. The journalist's wife had reported him missing after he failed to return from an appointment on Sunday, news reports said.

The Cambodia Daily quoted local police chief Song Bunthanorm as saying that Hang Serei Odom had been hit in the front and back of the head with an ax. The official said at least two people were involved in the murder, the report said. No suspects were immediately identified.

Journalist Found Murdered

Police uncover the body of reporter Hang Serei Oudom hidden in the trunk of his car in Ratanakiri province, Sept. 11, 2012.(RFA)

The body of a Cambodian reporter who uncovered illegal logging is found in the trunk of his car.

2012-09-12

Radio Free Asia

A Cambodian journalist who exposed illegal logging and forest crimes involving the local elite has been murdered, police said Wednesday, after his battered body was found in the trunk of his car.

Hang Serei Oudom, 42, a reporter for the local Virakchum Khmer Daily newspaper, had been missing since Sunday afternoon and his body was found on Tuesday in northeastern Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province, said Ek Vun, the police chief for Balung City, the provincial capital.

Authorities are working to identify suspects involved in the murder of the reporter, who had recently written a string of stories about deforestation and timber smuggling in Ratanakiri, where logging and mining in recent years have taken a big toll on the environment.

“We have already collected the necessary evidence and we are investigating the case,” provincial governor Pao Ham Phan said.

Murder-suicide in La Vergne, Tennessee, involving Cambodian-American couple

La Vergne Couple Die In Murder-Suicide

2 Kids In Room With Couple, Says Man's Mom

March 25, 2011
Reported By Larry Flowers
WSMV-TV Channel 4 News (Nashville, Tennessee, USA)

LA VERGNE, Tenn. -- Police said a murder-suicide claimed the lives of a couple in a La Vergne subdivision Friday morning.

The female victim, 27-year-old Nith Sim, who's originally from Cambodia and has been in the United States for seven years, was dead when officers arrived at a home on Betty Lou Lane in the Lake Forest neighborhood.

The man, identified as Daniel Sim, 28, was found shot at the home and taken to Stone Crest Medical Center. He was later transferred to Vanderbilt Medical Center, where he died Friday afternoon.

Daniel Sim's mother, who was visiting from New York, found the couple at about 10:30 a.m., police said. She first told police she heard nothing, then she said she did hear something but thought it was one of the kids. A 5-month-old boy and 2-year-old girl were in the bedroom with the couple.

Girl Suggests Marriage to Her Boyfriend- Boyfriend Murders Her

05/10/2010
ShortNews.com
Source: www.phnompenhpost.com

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - A man told police that on Tuesday he had had sex with his girlfriend for the first time after being together for more than a year. After the sex his girlfriend suggested that they get married.

The man told police that he was afraid that soon his girlfriend may demand they get married so when his girlfriend first suggested they get married, the man refused and then murdered her.

Police found the victim´s clothed, lifeless body in the bathroom of the man´s rented house.

Fresno Judge Sentences Elderly [Cambodian-American] Killer

April 15, 2010
By Dennis Hart
KMJ 580 AM Radio (Fresno, California)

A Fresno judge on Thursday sent an elderly Cambodian refugee to prison for more than two decades for stabbing the man's estranged wife to death.

Pech Sok, 69, was convicted of first-degree murder last month in connection with the slaying of his estranged wife, who had recently left him.

A judge sentenced Sok to 26 years to life in prison.

Pech Sok had come to the U.S. to seek a new life after his first wife died in Cambodia -- a victim of dictator Pol Pot's purges.

His second wife died 11 years ago.

She drowned in the San Joaquin River as she tried to save the lives of two of their children, who also drowned.

Man Murdered for Leaving Party too Early

05/04/2009
ShortNews.com

In Srah Chak village, Kampong Chhnang province, Cambodia, Mr. Chhun Bunthon, 38, got intoxicated at a party, early in the evening, and decided it was time to go. Witnesses said that Bunthon had been so drunk that he couldn't drink anymore.

Mr. Nob Ny, 26, was at the same party as Mr. Bunthon and he was not happy with Bunthon's decision to leave the party early.

When Bunthon attempted to depart, Ny stabbed him to death.

Accused Witch Gunned Down in Kampong Thom

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 December 2007

An elderly woman accused of witchcraft was shot to death Monday in Kampong Thom province, police said.

Kan Siem, 49, was killed by an unknown assailant as she traveled to a school to prepare meals for the children, police said.

Phauk Ly, acting deputy police chief of Prasat Sambo district, said the woman was shot in the head and arm.

"We don't know for sure if she knew witchcraft or not," he said, declining to comment further in an ongoing investigation.

Ros Sino, a Sam Rainsy Party activist in Kampong Thom, said witchcraft could have been a motive, adding that Kan Siem's husband was killed five years ago.

She had apparently presaged her own death the night before, telling her children Sunday she would be murdered, Ros Sino said.

"In turn, her offspring told me about it, saying someone wanted to kill her," Ros Sino said.

Thi Try, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said the murder of a wife and husband with no arrests was a worry to innocent people and a sign of a culture of impunity.

Abused Cambodian-American woman accused of planning the murder of her boss with abusive boyfriend

Prosecutor: Woman Planned Murder of Boss With Abusive Boyfriend

Tuesday, November 13, 2007
By: KELLY WHEELER
North County Times wire services (San Diego County, California, USA)

SAN DIEGO -- An 18-year-old woman who was in an abusive relationship with a married man conspired with him to kill her boss and then set the victim's car on fire, the prosecutor in the defendant's retrial told a jury today.

Ny Nourn, now 27, is charged with premeditated murder and arson of property in the Dec. 23, 1998, death of 38-year-old David Allen Stevens.

Nourn was convicted of murder at her first trial, along with a special circumstance of lying in wait. But those charges were overturned on appeal, and in September, Superior Court Judge Charles Rogers dismissed the lying in wait allegation.

Nourn's former lover, Ronald Barker, was convicted of killing Stevens in a separate trial in 2003 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Deputy District Attorney Chandra Appell said in her opening statement at the retrial that Nourn lured Stevens out of his Pacific Beach apartment the morning he died, telling him she had car trouble and needed his help.

Stevens was a marketing manager at a dating service called "Perfect Match" and Nourn was a telemarketer there, the prosecutor said.

Appell told jurors that Nourn had gone out with Stevens for the first time and had sex with him, even though she was in a "very intense" relationship with the then-35-year-old Barker, whom she had met after seeing his profile on the Internet.

After leaving Stevens' apartment the night of the murder, Nourn returned to her parents' home in Mira Mesa, where she was confronted by an angry Barker, the prosecutor said.

Barker wanted to end their relationship, but Nourn begged him not to, Appell said. Nourn ultimately chose to go along with a plan to kill Stevens and burn his body in his car on a La Jolla roadway, the prosecutor said.

Nourn returned to Stevens' Pacific Beach apartment and tricked the victim into helping her and her "brother" -- who turned out to be Barker -- with her supposed car trouble, Appell told the jury.

Stevens pulled to the side of the road when Barker flashed his headlights. The killer then jumped into Stevens' car and shot him twice in the head, Appell alleged.

After the murder, Barker and Nourn decided to get rid of the evidence on La Jolla Scenic Drive North, the prosecutor said.

"They decided to burn Mr. Stevens' car with his body inside of it," Appell said.

The crime went unsolved for three years, until Nourn confided in some girlfriends that she was afraid of Barker, telling them he had threatened to kill her and her family, Appell said.

The friends convinced Nourn to go to the police.

"You don't get to sacrifice the innocent life of someone else because you feel threatened," Appell told the jury. "She (Nourn) chose David Stevens to be the victim."

But defense attorney Doug Brown said Nourn didn't intend to kill or hurt Stevens.

Brown called Barker a "psycho" who represented himself as a 20-year- old single man when he met the then-17-year-old Nourn, who spent the first five years of her life in a refugee camp along the Cambodia-Thailand border before her family fled to America.

Nourn was an inexperienced girl with self-esteem and emotional problems when she met Barker, her attorney said.

"The evidence is going to show that she was no woman. She was a girl, a troubled little girl," Brown told the jury.

Brown said Barker raped and beat Nourn, shot at her, threatened her with a knife and burned her with an iron, calling him a "man who would not let her out of his claws."

Brown said Nourn lived under the fear that she and her family were going to be killed.

"(Barker) made her participate (in Stevens' murder)," Brown told the jury. "She never thought that Barker was going to kill David Stevens. He said, `If you ever tell anybody about this, I'm going to kill you and I'm going to kill your family."'

Doctors who evaluated Nourn determined that she was a victim of Battered Woman Syndrome, the attorney said.

Women who have been battered sometimes act out in an irrational way, Brown said. He said said Nourn's fear of Barker was justified.

"This guy was a killer. He wasn't going to let her get in the way," Brown told jury.

Cambodian student sought in connection with teacher's murder

Mon, 12 Nov 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian student was being sought in connection with the shooting murder of his teacher on the school grounds and the rape of his victim's girlfriend, police said Monday. Police in Sameky Meanchey district of central Kampong Chhnang province, about 100 kilometres from the capital, said Pel Phirun, 35, was shot dead in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"The shooting happened during a musical performance on the school campus so no one heard the shot and the crime was not reported until later. The girl was abducted and only returned home the next day distraught and with no clothes," district police chief Chim Buntheoun said by telephone.

"The case is still open, but we do have a prime suspect who has fled the area and we are searching for him."

The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was one of the teacher's students, police said. Friends of the couple had reported he was obsessed with the 17-year-old girlfriend of Phirun, who was also not named, and had been accused of stalking them.

"This girl is very beautiful. She is the prettiest girl in the area. Phirun only moved here a year ago but they fell in love so there was jealousy with some people," Buntheoun said.

Premeditated murder carries a 20-year jail term in Cambodia.

Family of slain man pays respects in the Buddhist tradition

In front of her brother's casket, Sopheak Riem, right, hugs Casey Aguon during Sophear Riem's wake Tuesday. Sophear Riem was shot early Sunday morning at a bachelor party in Port Hueneme. Police said Wednesday they had not identified a suspect or motive for the shooting. The Star was invited by the Riem family to photograph Tuesday's viewing. (Photos by James Glover II / Star staff)

'Sophear did not deserve this'

Thursday, November 8, 2007
By Adam Foxman (Contact)
The Ventura County Star (Ventura, California, USA)

Sophear Riem's killing at a weekend bachelor party in Port Hueneme was like an earthquake, his mother said. It came without warning and shook friends and family to their foundations.

Riem, 20, of Oxnard was in a good mood on the last night of his life, said friends who spoke to him shortly before he was killed. A gentle, happy young man who always seemed to have a smile on his face, he was in his element in groups.

"Every day of his life was a party," said Angel Garibay, 22, who became friends with Riem at Sunkist School in Port Hueneme. "Everybody loved him."

Details about what happened at the party remained sketchy this week. Port Hueneme police said Wednesday that they had not determined a suspect or possible motive for the shooting, which also left four other men injured, two critically. But police think Riem was an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time, Sgt. Peter Freiberg said.

The host of the Saturday night party told Riem's father, Saren Riem, that two men the host didn't know showed up at the party in the 600 block of Lighthouse Way in Port Hueneme and asked the groom-to-be for beer. The prospective groom asked the men to leave the party, and they did, but one came back in and started shooting, Saren Riem said.

Sophear Riem, standing near the groom, was shot in the head as he tried to run away, his father said. He was pronounced dead at the scene early Sunday. Four other men, ages 23 to 33, were shot multiple times. On Wednesday, two remained in critical condition and two were in stable condition. Police have not released the names of the wounded men.

Sophear Riem's relatives and friends are gathering this week at Conrad-Carroll Mortuary in Oxnard to remember him and pay their respects according to the Buddhist traditions his parents brought with them from their native Cambodia.

About 150 mourners packed the mortuary Tuesday as the week of funeral rites began.

During the ceremony, the smell of incense filled the air. Monks in orange robes chanted in their native language and prayed over Sophear Riem's body to allow his soul to rest peacefully. Buddhist mourners responded by praying that no one else will have to suffer a tragedy like theirs, said Sontheavy Riem, Sophear Riem's mother.

"We don't want anyone hurt like us," said Sontheavy Riem, 52.

After the ceremony, Sontheavy Riem described her son as a good kid who loved playing music with his band, Black Hand.

"I miss him," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Called Sushi by his friends — for his love of the Japanese delicacy — Sophear Riem had been a member of Black Hand for about five years. His performances for the heavy metal band were so exuberant that he sometimes stole the show, bandmates said. "He knew how to rock out on stage," said band member Chris Mejia.

Sophear Riem had big dreams for the band, said Deanna Romero, 21. "He wanted Black Hand to be the next Metallica if they could."

A graduate of Hueneme High School, Sophear Riem planned to eventually continue his education and work to improve communication between the United States and Cambodia, his mother said. But he wasn't in a rush, because he was enjoying his youth.

Saren Riem said his son accumulated a lot of life experience in his 20 years. When the family took a trip to Cambodia this spring, he helped rebuild a Buddhist temple in his father's village. The original temple was destroyed in the 1970s while the country was under communist rule.

Older relatives were impressed by the respect Sophear Riem showed them when he visited, and they couldn't believe it when Sontheavy Riem told them he had been killed, she said.

Garibay said he can't believe his friend is gone. "It seems like just a dream," he said. "He's just one of a kind."

Tuesday's ceremony focused on Sophear Riem's life, and there was little discussion about the killing. His cousin Bopha Hul was one of the few who broached the subject. After taking the podium to remember her cousin, she urged the group to not practice or advocate violence. She received a round of applause.

On Wednesday, Sophear Riem's father asked that anyone with information about his son's killer call the police.

"Sophear did not deserve this," he said, deploring violence. The next victim "could be any family, anybody."

The last viewing of Sophear Riem is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at Conrad-Carroll Mortuary, 401 W. Channel Islands Blvd., Oxnard. The final memorial service before his cremation is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. Monday at the mortuary.

Cambodian-American man gets 50 years for killing girlfriend

Oakland man gets 50 years for killing girlfriend

11/06/2007
Bay City News Service (California, USA)

An Oakland gang member and drug dealer was sentenced today to 50 years to life in state prison for shooting his 16-year-old girlfriend in the head at point-blank range two years ago after she said she wanted to break up with him.

Loeun Sa, 22, who has a prior conviction for possessing marijuana for sale and told police he belonged to the Asian Street Walkers gang, was convicted Sept. 26 of first-degree murder, using a firearm and being an ex-felon in possession of a gun for the Aug. 27, 2005, death of Nancy Nguyen at 52nd Avenue and East 10th Street in Oakland.

Nguyen was just beginning her senior year at the Life Academy High School of Health and Biosciences in Oakland and would have celebrated her 17th birthday the next week.

After Sa was sentenced, his lawyer, Spencer Strellis, said, "He's a kid and he threw his whole life away for nothing and also took her life. This case is a tragedy."

Strellis said there was no question that Sa killed Nguyen, but he thought that Sa acted in the heat of passion and should have been convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

In her closing argument in Sa's trial, Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew said Sa shot Nguyen after she told him to calm down following an incident in which he fired a gun into the air to break up a fight that involved 10 to 20 people and then told him that their relationship was over.

In his opening statement in the trial, Strellis admitted that Sa killed Nguyen but said the key issue in the trial was Sa's state of mind at the time.

"It's clear that there was a lover's quarrel and emotions ran high," Strellis said.

Pettigrew said Nguyen and Sa got into a "really loud" argument after Sa fired two shots into the air but their friends tried to ignore it because they figured it was just "a girlfriend-boyfriend spat."

But the prosecutor said Sa then turned toward a group of onlookers and said in Cambodian, "Do you want to see her die?"

Pettigrew said, "Tragically for Nancy, no one took him seriously" and tried to stop him.

The prosecutor said Nguyen, who was Vietnamese-American, probably didn't understand what Sa was saying so "she didn't know what was coming."

Pettigrew said the area where the shooting occurred is heavily Cambodian-American and there's a Cambodian temple nearby.

Pettigrew said Sa dragged Nguyen around the corner to a deserted cul-de-sac and a few moments later, witnesses heard Nguyen say to Sa, "Why are you hitting me? It's over."

Pettigrew said the witnesses then heard Sa tell Nguyen, "You can't run from me. You can't get away."

After that, the witnesses heard the gunshot that took Nguyen's life, Pettigrew said.

The prosecutor said Nguyen and Sa had dated for about seven months and there had been no indication that they'd had problems or that she had wanted to break up with him.

Two Charged in Military Police Murder

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
11 September 2007

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday issued murder charges to two men accused of aiding in the brazen daylight killing of a military police official Sunday.

Hor Sokheng, 27, and Lay Pisith, 30, were allegedly part of a hit squad that ambushed Lt. Col. Reth Nika, a deputy military police chief, on a crowded Phnom Penh street Sunday evening. One of the assailants was killed and two remain at large, officials said.

The two in custody face up to life in prison for their role in the killing, which police say was likely the result of a personal grudge.

Human rights officials say the open nature of the attack indicated the attackers had connections to high-ranking government leaders.

Two Arrested After Police Official Murdered

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
10 September 2007

Authorities were holding two men Monday after the murder of a deputy chief of military police, officials said.

Col. Reth Nika, 27, was gunned down on a busy Phnom Penh street Sunday evening. He had fled his Mercedes after it was chased by an SUV and became stuck in traffic, Agence France-Presse reported Monday.

Gunman ran after Reth Nika and caught up with him in a pagoda, where they shot him dead, AFP reported.

Two suspects had been arrested and a third man thought to be involved died from injuries sustained during a shootout, Phnom Penh Police Chief Touch Naroth said. Police suspected a personal grudge and were searching for two more suspects, he said.

AFP reported the dead assailant as Rath Sorady, 20, a policeman with the Interior Ministry.

Keo Remy, first vice president of the Human Rights Party, called the shooting a "brutal" example of the "killing anarchy" brought about by weak rule of law.

Chan Saveth, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said his group was investigating the shooting.

Military police deputy killed in Cambodia

10/09/2007
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A senior military policeman has been killed in an intense gunfight in the capital, Phnom Penh.

At least five gunmen, including an Interior Ministry police officer, attacked Phnom Penh's deputy Military Police chief, Reth Nika, firing into his car after a high-speed chase.

Phnom Penh police chief, Touch Naruth, told AFP news agency that the 27-year-old fled his vehicle for a nearby temple after his car got stuck in traffic.

His assailants hunted him down and shot him dead within the temple grounds.

One of the attackers also died - from wounds suffered during the attack.

Touch Naruth says it is unclear why the killing took place.

Two people are under arrest and a hunt is continuing for more members of the group of assassins.

Deputy military police (PM) commander shot and killed in the middle of Phnom Penh

Monday, September 10, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The deputy military police (PM) commander for Phnom Penh City was killed by armed men in the evening of 09 September, right in the middle of the City of Phnom Penh. Local newspapers report that Lieutenant Colonel Reth Nyka, the deputy PM commander for the City of Phnom Penh, was shot and killed. Eyewitnesses said that 27-year-old Reth Nyka was shot by a man wearing a white shirt, armed with two handguns, near Wat Saravoan pagoda, Watt Phnom commune, Daun Penh district. The armed man shot Reth Nyka several times on his head. Reth Nyka was transported by ambulance to the Calmette hospital, but because his injuries were too severe, the doctors could not save him, and he died. His body was sent to Wat Langka pagoda for religious ceremony. The Srah Chak police said that the suspect in the shooting of Reth Nyka was immediately apprehended by the authority and sent to the city PM headquarters. There is no indication yet on the motive of the shooting. Reth Nyka was the former deputy PM commander in the Kandal province, he was recently transferred to the city of Phnom Penh.