The director of the Yen Bai province Forest Protection Agency (FPA) shot and killed two provincial officials yesterday before turning the gun on himself.
According to VnExpress, forestry official Do Cuong Minh walked into the office of Yen Bai’s provincial Communist Party chief Pham Duy Cuong around 7am and shot his colleague with a K59 pistol. Minh then went to Yen Bai People’s Council chairman Ngo Ngoc Tuan’s office and opened fire on another colleague before shooting himself.
Though civilian gun ownership is illegal in Vietnam, Minh was deputized to own a gun because of his FPA position.
In the aftermath of the incident, all three men were rushed to hospital in critical condition. Cuong and Tuan suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen; the two victims later succumbed to their injuries around noon, reports Thanh Nien. The shooter died at approximately 1:30pm. Physicians from Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital were sent to Yen Bai to assist local doctors after it was determined that the three men could not be transferred to the capital.
Through the morning, a crowd gathered outside the hospital where the victims and the shooter were taken, reports Tuoi Tre. Security was tight around both the hospital and the crime scene.
Upon learning of the situation, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc traveled to Yen Bai to oversee an investigation into the shooting.
At a press briefing on Thursday afternoon, authorities avoided reporters’ questions about the motive of the shooter, while provincial mayor Pham Thi Thanh Tra denied speculations that Minh’s actions were driven by recent political reshuffling, which resulted in the merging of the FPA with another department. Director Dang Tran Chieu of the provincial police department said officials would announce their findings after the investigation was complete.
The crime scene is currently cordoned off by local authorities, however Yen Bai police chief Chieu told Zing that a total of four bullets were discharged in each of the rooms.
Cuong, 58, was re-elected as Yen Bai’s Party chief late last year, while 52-year-old Tuan became chairman of the Yen Bai legislature in June. Minh, 53, had already served as FPA director for two years and was the son-in-law of one of Yen Bai’s former Party chiefs.
[Photo via VnExpress]
