A police officer in My Tho City, located in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, on Thursday afternoon was sentenced to 30 months in jail for causing a man’s death by a stray bullet while on duty last year.

The People’s Court of My Tho City handed down the sentence to Le Tran Duy Huu Hanh, former captain and scout officer of the city’s criminal police team.

The court also forced Hanh to compensate the victim’s family with VND400 million (US$17,305).

According to the indictment, major Nguyen Van Du led captain Hanh and six other scouts to the scene of a cockfight gambling den after a report of local people in My Phong Commune, My Tho City on December 29, 2019.

When major Du and captain Hanh approached the scene before the six scouts, several of the gamblers started running away.

While major Du was rushing to arrest Truong Van Hung, a 54-year-old local man, captain Hanh ran from behind, pulled out a gun labeled DUTY CZ75-07 and loaded the bullet.

The captain suddenly slipped and accidentally fired two gunshots, which fortunately hit nobody.

Hanh continued chasing the gamblers and fired three more gunshots in the air, which, this time, hit three people about 25.5 meters away from him.

Consequently, Nguyen Van Lien, a 38-year-old man among the three injured people, died at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

The other two people, Nguyen Van Cua and Dong Quoc Tri, both 42, had to receive emergency treatment at the hospital.

The investigation into the case came to a conclusion that captain Hanh had fired three gunshots while on duty in a situation that is not allowed, prescribed in Article 23 of the law on management and use of weapons, explosives and combat gears.

Moreover, Hanh failed to perform the correct operation when shooting the gun, causing the bullet to hit Lien’s neck, leading to his death.

Hanh will spend two years and six months behind bars as per Thursday’s court decision.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!