A convicted murderer who eluded police for 22 years hanged himself in jail in southern Vietnam before a trial that likely would have led to a death sentence.

Police in the Mekong Delta's Vinh Long Province said in a statement issued Wednesday that Le Thanh Tuan, 49, "had torn his shirt and sleeping net to make a string and kill himself in his cell," news website VnExpress reported.

Tuan was first arrested in May 1989 for drunkenly shouting and destroying furniture at a pub.

When he was sent to a police station, Tuan took a gun off a table and shot frantically, killing two people on the spot and injuring three others, including his wife.

The man escaped during the fracas and traveled on a boat to Cambodia.

He was arrested late last month while coming home to visit his family.