Japanese man killed in capital during robbery

04 March 2013
By Leang Sarith
The Phnom Penh Post

A Japanese man was shot to death and then robbed early yesterday morning in Chamkarmon district’s Boeung Keng Kang I commune, police said.

The shooting happened just after 1am, when a man police identified as 44-year-old Korsa Kitakowa arrived at a condo on Street 278 with a female companion, according to a commune police official who provided details of the case on the condition of anonymity.

As Kitakowa was getting out of the tuk-tuk, said the official, two men on a motorbike confronted him. One of them pointed a gun at Kitakowa and demanded money. He refused. Following a short struggle, the gunman fired four shots, killing Kitakowa and hitting the tuk-tuk driver, Sanh Sothy, 34, in his left leg.

The woman was unharmed, and police released her after determining she was not involved in the attack. Sothy, who police say tried to intervene and help, received treatment at a local hospital.

“Suspects haven’t been found yet, but police are investigating,” said Heang Tharet, deputy Chamkarmon police chief.

“The suspects aren’t known yet, but polices are investigating.”

The police source, who asked not to be named, said the victim was a tourist who arrived in Cambodia on February 27. Neither he nor Tharet would say what the armed robbers had taken.

The Japanese Embassy confirmed the case and said it is working with the police to find the perpetrators.

“We are contacting Cambodian police and asking them to capture those robbers as early as possible,” said Takayoshi Kuromiya, counsellor and spokesman for the Japanese Embassy in Cambodia.

He said relatives of the victim had been contacted, and he called the deadly attack against a Japanese national living or visiting Cambodia “rare.”

“Of course this is a very hard accident, and we strongly hope that this kind of incident does not happen in the future, but Japanese residents here understand that the security situation in Cambodia is not perfect,” he said.

“We are paying attention to the security conditions in Phnom Penh.”