Police arrest man on murder
Residents still in shock after murder in Mosta
Police have arrested a man in connection with Wednesday’s murder in Mosta and retrieved firearms which they suspect could be linked to the shooting, The Times has learnt.
Sources said Paul Degabriele, 49, who is well-known to the police, was arrested in connection with the investigation into the murder of 46-year-old Joseph Cutajar, known as Il-Lion, in Mill Street on Wednesday morning.
In October, a car bomb was placed beneath Mr Degabriele’s Toyota pickup truck in Fgura but a neighbour alerted him and it was safely detonated. However, investigators do not believe that incident is connected to the murder.
Tests will be conducted on the weapons found to establish whether
any of them had been used in the shooting. Investigators believe a rifle such as a Kalashnikov was used to kill Mr Cutajar.
This is a gas-operated assault rifle, also known as an AK-47, that was first used in the late 1940s. This kind of firearm is not a precision weapon as its bullets are intended to ‘shower’ the target.
Mr Cutajar was hit by several bullets but one to his head proved fatal, an autopsy has revealed. He was found sprawled on the ground in a pool of blood with his legs still inside his metallic green Toyota Yaris.
People living close to where the shooting took place, in the usually quiet Mosta street, were still in shock yesterday when The Times went on site.
Facades and glass panes were damaged by bullets. A bullet even perforated the glass pane of an aluminium door 50 metres away from the scene of the shooting.
Investigators believe the person who shot Mr Cutajar was hiding behind a prickly pear tree at the intersection of Trunċitta Street and Mill Street.
Forensic experts lifted a cladode, part of a prickly pear tree, that was struck by a bullet.
The owners of three of the houses said they were inside at the time of the shooting and heard loud noises which they did not immediately associate with a shooting.
One woman said she was in the kitchen and went upstairs thinking that something must have fallen off one of the wardrobes.
When she found nothing, she burst out crying and looked outside where she saw panic ensue. She then called her husband who had left home only a few minutes earlier.
The bomb planted beneath Mr Degabriele’s grey pickup truck in 14th December, 1945 Street in Fgura on October 2, consisted of a kilo of explosive material that had a potential blast radius of over 50 metres.