A court in Vietnam sentenced two brothers to death and life in prison on Thursday for stabbing and beating a police officer to death in January.

The court in Can Tho City, located in the Mekong Delta, gave Dang Ngoc Minh, 33, the death sentence and his younger brother Dang Ngoc Giau, 29, a life imprisonment verdict on murder charges.

Both have a criminal record and were already jailed for their past crimes, according to court documents.

After walking out of the prison, they continued to requently cause public disorder in their hometown – Ninh Kieu District in Can Tho – so they were admistratively penalized by local police.

The brothers thus held a grudge against the police force.

Captain Nguyen Thanh Hai, 36, was locking his house to go on duty at a flower market in Can Tho at 3:40 pm on January 24, the court documents said.

Giau saw Captain Hai so he came to challenge the police officer with a knife.

Minh also walked toward the two from his house, trying to snatch the knife from Giau but the hilt came off.

The three started to fight for the blade.

Minh managed to grab the blade and repeatedly stabbed Captain Hai, while Giau violently beat the police officer with the hilt.

Captain Hai attempted to escape from the brothers but they caught up, stabbing and beating him until he became motionless.

Captain Hai was pronounced dead upon hospitalization, suffering fatal wounds to the chest and heart.

The duo turned themselves in to the local police station following his death.

Giau was jailed for three years in 2012 for inflicting injury on others while Minh was imprisoned for nine months desecrating the national flag in 2013, according to police investigation.

Minh had had six misdemeanors, including causing public disorder under the influence of alcohol, damaging property, and physically hurting family members.

The two defendants admitted to their crime at the trial in Can Tho.

Giau hated having been warned for stirring public order so he rushed toward Captain Minh with the knife upon seeing him, joined by Minh then, he confessed.

The younger brother was intoxicated when the two brothers were murdering the police officer.

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