Sihanoukville police said yesterday they are investigating a man who drunkenly fired his weapon into the air, with local media identifying the suspect as a deputy provincial police chief who was angered by a Russian woman turning down his advances.

City police chief Phoul Phorsda said the man fired the weapon in the early hours of Saturday at the Seven nightclub, but that police had been unable to substantiate a Fresh News report that the suspect was new Preah Sihanouk deputy police chief Ben Dara.

“We are investigating the gun firing,” Phorsda said. “The ones who have reported about it, maybe they know about it. That’s their business and I cannot comment on that, but when I went to question people, there was no one who would identify his name.”

“We need evidence,” he explained.

Commune 3 police chief Khiev Vantha said only that the man involved had fired his weapon after a dispute. “He got angry and shot into the air . . . after a conversation with a Russian woman,” he said.

A city police officer who declined to be named for fear of retribution said that the suspect was in fact Dara, who was recently transferred from Phnom Penh to the role of deputy provincial police chief.

“After he talked to the Russian woman, and she shook her head . . . he drove his car out and opened his car window and shot into the air,” the officer said.

Neither Dara nor Chuon Narin, the provincial police chief, could be reached for comment yesterday.