Tanya Gera was lost for words as she tried to understand what happened on New Year’s Day when her son Nicholas entered the Sliema apartment of another family and got involved in a deadly fight with the owner.

Nicky was out with me shopping . . . and he was his jovial self

Speaking from her apartment in Blanche Huber Street, where her son lived with her, just a few blocks away from the scene of the crime, Mrs Gera described her son as “a quiet and reserved boy”.

“Nicky was my baby and I still cannot accept what happened,” she said yesterday as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Asked whether her son had any link with the couple, Mrs Gera said she had no idea whether they knew each other. She had never heard her son mention Mr Zammit or his family.

“I am shocked and cannot accept what happened. He is not the type to use a knife... no, not my Nicky. It must be devastating, even for the other guy’s family, leaving twins fatherless,” a visibly distraught Mrs Gera said.

She said her son was “a loner”, constantly on his computer and working part-time at the Indian restaurant Shivas in Paceville.

Mr Gera would have celebrated his 27th birthday on Thursday, his mother pointed out, as she looked at a framed photo of him in the school uniform of St Edward’s College which he used to attend.

“When the police came knocking on my door, I had no idea he was not in bed . . . I was shocked,” she said. Mrs Gera explained that she had lent her son her car the night before as she normally did. “He told me he would be later than usual at the restaurant because of New Year’s Eve. The police told me he finished work at around 3 a.m. and went to Muddy Waters in St Julians for a drink.

“There seems to have been a fight at the bar but I do not know whether Nicky was involved and the last recorded communication seems to be a phone call he made to a friend at around 5 a.m.”

Mrs Gera is convinced that her son’s actions were not premeditated, adding that on Saturday he had accompanied her while shopping.

“Nicky was out with me shopping on Saturday morning and he was his usual jovial self,” she said.

Mr Gera was the youngest of five brothers adopted by Mrs Gera from an eastern European country 15 years ago.

As mystery continues to surround the case, a lot of theories are being bandied around but the one Mrs Gera will definitely not believe is that her son went into the apartment to steal with two knives in hand.

“If they had a stupid argument and knives weren’t used they may have ended up with a couple of bruises,” she said, as her voice cracked under emotion.

On the job, he was described as a “perfect gentleman” and an irreplaceable, trustworthy waiter. The homicide has left the restaurant he worked at shocked and incredulous.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com