A Vietnam court has sentenced a former traffic police officer in the southern province of Dong Nai to nine years in prison for shooting his superior dead following a row at a karaoke bar in 2013. Former captain Ngo Van Vinh, 40, received the sentence on charges of murder at his trial that was opened by the provincial People’s Court on Monday after two delays due to a lack of witnesses. Vinh, who was an officer at the Suoi Tre Traffic Control Station, was arrested after he shot and killed Major Tran Ngoc Son, deputy head of the station, and injured Senior Lieutenant Doan Thanh Phu, another officer there, in September 2013. At yesterday’s hearing, Vinh said he fired two shots but he did not admit that he shot Maj. Son dead.      The jury, however, said the evidence and testimonies of the witnesses were enough to convict Vinh of murder pursuant to Article 93 of the Penal Code. The court also ordered that Vinh pay VND170 million (US$7,800) as damages to Maj. Son’s family and also pay them to help raise his two children until they reach 18 years old. According to the indictment, the shooting resulted from a conflict at the HL karaoke bar in Long Khanh Town on September 22, 2013.

On that afternoon, Vinh and one of his colleagues were in a karaoke room when they learned that Maj. Son and his two acquaintances were in another at the bar.

Vinh entered Maj. Son’s room and invited Truong Thanh Chi, one of the two acquaintances, to share a glass of beer with him, but Chi turned him down and pushed the glass into his nose, causing bleeding. Chi then continued to beat Vinh before the assault was stopped. Vinh then left the bar and returned to the station. Maj. Son then came back to the station as well and scolded Vinh for fighting with Chi. He grabbed Vinh’s head and banged it against the edge of the bed where he was lying.

Furious, Vinh grabbed a gun he had left under a pillow on the bed and shot Maj. Son and then Sr. Lt. Phu, who tried to stop him from shooting. Other officers seized Vinh after the shooting. Maj. Son died later at Long Khanh General Hospital due to fatal wounds to his hip and back, while Sr. Lt. Phu suffered injuries in his abdomen. At yesterday’s hearing, the court said Chi has been detained for assaulting Vinh and he will be tried on charges of “intentionally inflicting injury on other persons” pursuant to Article 104 of the Penal Code.

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