Police warned days before, family claim

The family of Bastjan Borg, the man shot dead by police last Friday, have claimed they had warned the police and health authorities about his "bad mental state" five days before his fatal confrontation with the officers but had been ignored.

The allegation was made in an e-mail addressed to Police Commissioner John Rizzo, a copy of which was sent to the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry and to The Times.

The man's family said that their relative suffered from acute breakdowns which, from time to time, became so severe that the police would have to be called to take him to Mount Carmel Hospital for treatment.

This was such an occasion, the family said, pointing out that for five days prior to the incident they had been contacting authorities at Mount Carmel, the social worker assigned to him and the police. But no one had helped.

"We knew that the more time passed, the more Bastjan could become aggressive and it would have been much easier for the police to restrain him when he had first entered this mental state. But, it seems as though the police didn't believe us," the letter said.

In the hours before he was shot, officers from the Qormi police station had been called to investigate three separate reports about vandalism and threats Mr Borg had made to punters in a bar.

The police said three officers eventually tracked him down, trying to restrain him but Mr Borg drew a penknife from his pocket and turned towards the police, menacingly waving the knife. Eventually he lunged forward in an attempt to stab an officer, and two of the officers fired a total of five shots at him, killing him on the spot.

But the family insist his death could have been avoided had the police taken action when they had requested it: "We were being given replies such as: 'I am alone in the police station' or 'the shift has changed now, and I don't know anything about this, you'd better wait for tomorrow's shift'," the family said, quoting responses from the Qormi district police.

"A police sergeant even told us that he could not just go and arrest him, unless he had done something wrong." The police had the go-ahead from a psychiatrist at Mount Carmel to pick him up, the family said.

"Why wasn't immediate action taken? Was it fear? Energy? Or a shirking of responsibility? Whatever the case, the police did not carry out its duty.

"Bastjan's killing could have been avoided. Without doubt the police acted in a careless way, irresponsibly and with incompetence and this led to the loss of a husband and a father to his wife and son respectively."

The family urged the Police Commissioner to carry out his investigations into the case and bring the "police responsible" to face justice or else resign. "We are relying on your integrity to carry out your investigation without fear and take the necessary steps so that the police officers responsible for this death face justice.

"If you are not prepared to do this, then on behalf of the Maltese people who were scandalised by this shameful act, we ask you to resign." When asked to react to the family's comments, both the Home Affairs Ministry and the administration at Mount Carmel Hospital declined to comment in view of the ongoing magisterial inquiry.

The police, who gave a press conference about the shooting on Saturday, did not reply to questions sent by e-mail and a phone call made to the Police Commissioner's office was not returned. The inquiry is being led by Jacqueline Padovani Grima, while the police are carrying out their own internal investigations.

Translation of the letter in full

"Shortly after 10.30 p.m. on Friday, three police officers, one of them a sergeant, shot five times, at close range, our beloved Bastjan Borg, killing him. Bastjan had allegedly attacked the policemen when they had gone to arrest him for vandalising some cars. He resisted the arrest with a small knife; an Opinel (four inches) with which he used to eat his bread.

According to your own words, Mr Commissioner, in an extraordinary premature press conference you gave to journalists, you said that the police, who were three against one, shot at Bastjan in self-defence.

This is why we are asking you: Is this the self-defence training which the Maltese police are given? Wasn't there another method police could adopt to restrain him? Whatever happened to rubber bullets, nets, sprays, clubs and shields, not to mention a whole list of weapons, which are not lethal? And if they shot in self-defence, wasn't one shot enough? Was there need for five? And couldn't they have aimed at a leg or aren't the police trained to aim either?

Bastjan suffered from acute breakdowns which, every few years, were so severe that we would need the police's help to take him to Mount Carmel Hospital for treatment. As for the rest, everyone knew what a heart of gold he had, always ready to help. On Friday, Bastjan was in a bad mental state. We, the family, were amazed, Mr Commissioner, how in your press conference you did not mention that we had been calling the authorities at Mount Carmel Hospital, the social worker responsible for him and the Qormi and Msida police stations for five days beforehand telling them that Bastjan was not well and needed to be admitted to hospital. We do not believe that this information had not reached you but we will give you the benefit of the doubt and ask you to track down the phone calls that have been made to the Qormi police station so that you can listen with your own ears to the excuses which the police were bringing up when we, and Bastjan's mother, phoned, imploring the police for help.

We knew that the more time passed, the more Bastjan could become aggressive and it would have been much easier for the police to restrain him when he had first entered this mental state.

But, it seems as though the police didn't believe us and we were given replies such as: "I am alone in the police station" or "the shift has changed now, and I don't know anything about this, you'd better wait for tomorrow's shift".

A police sergeant even told us that he could not just go and arrest him, unless he had done something wrong. The police even had a go-ahead from the psychiatrist at Mount Carmel to pick him up. Why wasn't immediate action taken? Was it fear? Energy? Or a shirking of responsibility?

Whatever the case, the police did not carry out their duty. Bastjan's killing could have been avoided. Without doubt the police acted in a careless way, irresponsibly and with incompetence and this led to the loss of a husband and a father to his wife and son respectively.

We are relying on your integrity to carry out your investigations without fear and to take the necessary steps so that the police officers responsible for this death will face justice.

If you are not prepared to do this, then on behalf of the Maltese people who were scandalised by this shameful act, we ask you to resign."