Drunk colonel in alleged shooting

A 40-YEAR-OLD taxi driver in Phnom Penh underwent surgery at Calmette Hospital yesterday to remove a bullet from his left side after he was allegedly shot – on accident – by a drunken colonel from the Ministry of Defence.

Chum Kea was shot at 3:30am yesterday when he was driving Pen Sayoan, a colonel at the Ministry of Defence’s General Department of Technical Material, said Prampi Makara District Police Chief Kret Sakarin. Sayoan was arrested this morning and was being questioned. He added that the suspect would be sent to Phnom Penh Municipal Court for further procedures.

“In the taxi, authorities found a pistol bullet casing and two packets of drugs, and there was a hole from behind [the driver’s seat] and blood stains,” he said, identifying the drug as yaba. “But according to the suspect, the shooting [was] caused by a pistol malfunction, not intended murder.”

Following his surgery, Kea said from his room in the Intensive Care Unit that as they approached the suspect’s home while driving back from a club, Sayoan told him to stop and asked him if he had seen his gun, which he had apparently lost. A gunshot quickly followed.

Initially, Kea said, he was afraid of the suspect and refused an offer to take him to the hospital because he thought he might kill him. Sayoan later “hugged” him, apologised and gave him $100.

“However, I think that only he and God know whether he wanted to shoot me or not,” he said.

Kea’s wife, Sam Sophana, said her husband’s condition remained serious as the bullet had pierced through the intestine and had also affected the bladder, adding that he needed compensation for treatment.