Joseph Galea, known as il-Ġilda, who was shot dead in Marsa on Tuesday morning, was still alive, gasping for air, when his wife went outside to investigate after hearing a loud noise.

“I went to him and heard him taking deep, deep breaths in his car,” Joanne Galea, who has her husband’s nickname tattooed on her right upper arm, said between sobs yesterday.

She didn’t even realise the window glass was broken and opened the car door

Police sources said at least 20 shots were fired from a .762 calibre assault rifle as Mr Galea sat in his Kia Sorrento at about 5am. He was hit five times in his upper back, fatally wounding him.

Relatives walked in and out of the room as Ms Galea sat on the matrimonial bed in their apartment in Triq ix-Xemxija, Marsa, recounting her ordeal.

“He used to go out every morning at around 4.45am to have coffee and run some errands for my mother,” Sephora Galea, 29, one of his five children, said. Her mother, she continued, heard a loud sound similar to a “thunderclap”. She left the flat, crossed the landing and went to ask a neighbour whether she had also heard the noise.

“When she was there, she heard more noise, looked out of the window and saw my father in the car,” Ms Galea said.

Surprised to see that her husband had not already left, his wife went downstairs to check on him.

“She didn’t even realise that the glass of the window on the driver’s side was broken and opened the car door.

Galea ‘not police informer’

“He took two heavy, wheezing breaths and then fell to his side,” his daughter recounted in tears, repeating what her mother had witnessed.

Thinking that her husband had fainted or fell ill, Ms Galea called out for help. However, she quickly realised he was dead.

Bursting into tears as her daughter recounted what happened, Ms Galea exclaimed: “They killed him. It can’t be true. I don’t know what to do. I’m going to go mad.”

The family was upset and angry at media reports that Mr Galea was a “police informer”. His relatives flatly denied that he used to pass on any information to the authorities.

“These comments just hurt us, our family and, especially, my mother because they are lies,” his daughter said. They also denied claims Mr Galea had connections with Sicilians living in Palermo.

“He went to Sicily on Saturday and returned that same night. It’s not true what they are saying that he returned on Monday evening,” his daughter insisted.

She said her father was a quiet man, “crazy about his cars”.

After running some errands in the early morning for his wife, he would often sit at the computer in the bedroom browsing through the cars for sale on the Maltapark website, the daughter said.

She said her father loved his food and enjoyed giving gifts to his family, such as perfumes.

“He had just bought me a new mobile phone. It was in the box in the car when he died,” she added.

The police are looking for an SUV they believe two men parked across the road while waiting for Mr Galea to come outside.

Anyone with information can call the police in confidence on 119.