Police of Yen Bai province has started legal proceedings over a serious shooting that killed three senior officials of the northern mountainous locality.
Director of the provincial Police Department, Major General Dang Tran Chieu, said the decision was made late yesterday afternoon, August 18, as the documents and evidence collected by authorised agencies showed signs of a “murder” crime as stipulated in Article 93 of the Penal Code.
Dang Tran Chieu, Director of Yen Bai’s Police Department, speaks at a press conference on August 18 afternoon to give further information on the shooting
"Although the perpetrator was dead, the legal proceeding was still launched so investigators could figure out the motivation behind the shooting, and identify any accomplice of the killer, if there is, and related matters," Chieu said. "If the investigation finds no other individual involvement in the shooting, the probe will be halted."
Yen Bai Pprovincial Party chief Pham Duy Cuong, 58, and chairman of the People's Council Ngo Ngoc Tuan, 52, were shot in their offices at 7am on August 18 while preparing for a provincial People’s Council meeting.
The gunman was later identified as Do Cuong Minh, 53, chief of the province's Department of Forest Protection. Minh came to the offices of two officials and shot them multiple times in their heads, chests, and abdomen and then shot himself in the head.
The three victims were rushed to the hospital but then all died from serious injuries.
Speaking at a press conference about the deadly incident, chairman of the provincial People's Committee, Pham Thi Thanh Tra, said that this is the first such incident to ever happen in Vietnam.
"We're trying to investigate possible reasons leading to Minh's action," Tra said. "But I'm sure that there's no link to the arrangement of the province's personnel."