Man shot dead in Ta' Qali

A man, probably in his late 30s, was shot dead at Ta' Qali yesterday.

Informed sources said that although by around 10 p.m. the police had a good indication who the man could be, no details were realised.

The police were informed that there was a dead man in a car at Ta' Qali shortly after 7 p.m. yesterday and police officers who went to the scene of the crime came across the blood stained, lifeless body of a man sprawled on the front seats of a car.

The sources said the door on the driver's side was open, the engine running and the headlights still on when the police got there.

The car, a self-drive Hyundai Accent was parked on a patch of muddy ground by the side of the perimeter road leading to the pitkali, the vegetable market.

Eight spent cartridges were found, indicating that a 9mm semi-automatic pistol was the murder weapon. The man had been shot four times in the chest. The door on the driver's side was hit by two shots.

The side of the car was splattered with mud and tyre marks several metres long could be seen starting from near the car in which the victim was found and moving away from it.

The tyre marks were possibly made by the killer who drove his vehicle from an opposite direction, stopped by the victim's car, shot him and sped off.

The victim had no documentation on him.

Deputy Commissioner Joe Cachia, Assistant Commissioners Emanuel Cassar and Paul Sammut, Superintendents Pierre Calleja, Raymond Vella Gregory, Inspectors John Ellul, Christopher Pullicino, Carmelo Bartolo and Mario Bonello were on the scene.

Duty Magistrate Joe Cassar appointed several experts including clinical forensic physician Mario Scerri, ballistics expert Maurice Calleja, Richard Sladden and architect Richard Aquilina.

This is the seventh murder case this year and the second one to take place at Ta' Qali.

On February 13, Patricia Attard 55 of Hamrun was found shot dead slumped on the passenger seat of a van at Ta' Qali.

She had been shot three times with a pistol. A month later Josef Grech, 32 of Balzan was charged with the murder.

This year the police have solved five of the murders that have taken place as well as another that took place 16 years ago. A third person over the murder of the Gozo warden that took place last year has been arraigned.

The killing in Marsalforn of Gozitan lawyer Michael Grech, 46 remains unsolved.