Police officers testify in Birzebbuga shooting case

A man charged with the attempted murder of his second cousin waited for the police at the scene of the crime to inform them he had shot a person, a police inspector said in court yesterday.

Inspector Nadia Lanzon was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Salvu Farrugia, 55, of Birzebbuga who stands charged with trying to kill Alfred (sive Godfrey) Schembri by shooting at him with a shotgun.

Farrugia, nicknamed is-super, also stands charged with grievously injuring Schembri and with disfiguring his face, neck and one of his arms, with carrying a shotgun out of its case, with firing the gun in a road and with damaging Schembri's car.

Inspector Lanzon said that on May 16 she received a telephone call at home at about 5.45 a.m. informing her that there had been an attempted homicide. She was picked up half an hour later by PC Kenneth Vella Gregory and they went to Birzebbuga together.

When they arrived on the site where the victim had been picked up by the ambulance they found a dark grey Hyundai Pony car with blood marks and a bullet shot on its bonnet. The victim, she said, had already been taken to hospital.

Inspector Lanzon said they went to the site where the shooting took place and saw a person approaching them from the opposite direction. The person was holding a shotgun and saying something they could not understand.

She said she moved cautiously towards the man holding the shotgun and asked him what he was saying. He told her he had fired two shots at a person and that he had been waiting for the police to tell them what he had done.

She said she asked the accused why he had shot a person and he replied that the victim had driven his car close to him.

She said she informed her superior about the matter and arrested the accused.

In the meantime other policemen had arrived on the spot together with an elderly man who seemed to make a go at the accused. Investigations showed that the elderly man was the victim's father.

PS Anthony Agius, from the Zejtun police station, said he had been informed that the Birzebbuga station was to be closed for some time because of a shooting incident. Together with PC Simon Marshall he left their station, where things were quiet, to go and assist the Birzebbuga police. They followed an ambulance, which led them to where the victim was.

PS Agius said the victim was very pale, had his eyes closed and seemed to be in a precarious condition.

The people on the spot were saying they did not know anything except that they had heard a vehicle's horn being sounded repeatedly for a long time. The victim's brother said he assisted his brother until the arrival of the ambulance.

PS Agius said one of the shots fired had penetrated the victim's car window on the driver's side. There was another shot, which seemed to have been fired from close by, but it did not penetrate the vehicle's body.

He said that after the ambulance left, Nardu, the victim's father, told him that when he had asked his son what had happened his son did not seem to want to tell him.

The father told PS Agius his son had gone hunting in the morning. The father showed the witness his son's hunting spot. There were no signs of any shooting there and when they asked other hunters these said they had not heard anything.

PS Agius said they saw the other officers and the accused. He was told the accused had admitted to the crime and had handed over the weapon.

PS Agius said the victim's father started telling the accused he was a bully and asking him whether he realised what he did to them.

PS Agius said he then started doing door-to-door inquiries but most people did not answer his knocks. Two said they heard two shots. When he arrived at the accused's house, he asked Farrugia's wife what had happened.

She told him that her husband had left at about 5.35 a.m. to go hunting but returned only about five minutes later in a very agitated state.

He told her he had shot at a man as he had had enough of the person in question driving his car in his direction. The wife said her husband changed his clothes and left again.

At that moment, PS Agius recounted, the accused's daughter appeared from behind her mother and said that her father had seemed to have lost his mind since the trouble with ta' farfar (the victim's family) had started. She said it was not the first time that her father started laughing for no reason at all when the family were around the table.

PC Kenneth Vella Gregory said he had been with another officer in front of the Labour Party club in Birzebbuga when the victim's father approached them and told them that his son had been shot at.

They went to his house where they saw a Hyundai Pony car with two bullet holes, one in the driver's window and the other in the bonnet.

The victim was on the floor with blood oozing out. He was not talking.

The witness said he went to collect Insp. Lanzon and they returned on the spot. They then went to where the family said the victim used to go hunting and when they were near the fields they saw shattered glass on the floor. They also saw a man approaching them from another road.

The man emptied the shotgun he was holding from cartridges and told them he had shot a person earlier that morning.

Officers from the mobile squad arrived at that time together with the victim's father.

PC Vella Gregory said that when they asked the accused what had happened he told them he had wanted to kill the victim because things had not been good between them for about three years. The victim, the accused continued, had tried to drive his car in his direction.

He said they arrested the accused and took him to the Zejtun police station.

PC Simon Marshall said that after being informed that a person had been shot at he had gone to where the victim was. The ambulance had arrived before them and there were also relatives of the victim.

He said that according to the victim's brother Schembri had arrived on the spot driving his own car.

He said he remained in the area to preserve evidence.

The case continues on June 25.

Dr Toni Abela, for Farrugia, requested bail pointing out this was the right of the accused as the incident had taken place about a month ago and the accused was being kept under preventive custody only because the victim had not yet testified.

The prosecution and Schembri's lawyer objected.

Magistrate Noel Cuschieri said he would give his decision at a later stage.

Inspectors Silvio Valletta and Nadia Falzon prosecuted.

Dr Peter Fenech appeared for Schembri.