November 19, 8.46pm: PC 1223 Eman Grima, manning the police headquarters’ control room, receives the first phone call from the minister’s driver, Paul Sheehan. He calls for help from the Rapid Intervention Unit because of a hit-and-run. PC Grima hears shots while still on the phone, which was when Mr Sheehan identified himself as a policeman. According to the transcript, Mr Sheehan, who is near the national pool’s parking area, is heard saying: “He ran away, I shot at him... I shot at him.” PC Grima informs WPS 175 Vanessa Azzopardi who was on supervision duty

8.49pm: Mr Sheehan calls the control room again and this time WPC Erica Agius answers... He reiterates he had “shot at him”.

Sergeant Azzopardi goes down to brief Acting Police Commissioner Ray Zammit who is attending a reception at the headquarters. Asked if she ever mentioned “warning shots” to Mr Zammit, she denied this and insisted she had repeatedly told the commissioner “shots had been fired”. PC Grima, who was with her at the time, corroborated this – he said he never heard her mention “warning shots”.

He ran away,I shot at him...I shot at him

On his part, Mr Zammit – from his very first testimony on November 28 – always said Sergeant Azzopardi had told him Mr Sheehan had fired “warning shots”. He had gone to the control room to call Mr Sheehan, who told him, “he smashed my car; I fired two shots at him [tajtu żewġ tiri]”.

9.19pm: A transcript of the phone conversation shows Mr Zammit asking Superintendent Sandra Mamo to handle the incident. She was briefed by Mr Zammit that some drunkard [Steven Smith] had crashed in the minister’s car and Mr Sheehan had given chase. When Mr Smith came out of the car with a bottle “the minister’s driver fired two shots”.

10pm: When Superintendent Mamo arrives on the scene of the incident she found Mr Smith’s car had already been loaded on the low loader. She realised it had two bullet shots... and informed Mr Zammit at 10.48pm. He told her he had relayed what she had told him to Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia over dinner. Mr Mallia had been incredulous and surprised he could “go this far”.

Mr Zammit admitted to the board that after the reception he went on site to see the bullet holes in Mr Smith’s car.

It was established that when Mr Sheehan said “I fired two shots at him”, Mr Zammit understood this to mean “two warning shots”. “Since Sergeant Azzopardi told me some shots were fired, I took these to be warning shots since nobody had been hurt”.

December 1: Mr Zammit confirms to the inquiry board that the warning shots’ theory emerged from the police force. This had “built up” in his head after what Sergeant Azzopardi allegedly told him, even though neither Mr Sheehan nor Sergeant Azzopardi ever mentioned “warning shots”.

Mr Zammit also testified that, while he was on the phone with OPM’s communications coordinator Kurt Farrugia, he called Mr Sheehan again to get his version. When he asked him to say what happened exactly, Mr Sheehan replied: “Sir, I fired two shots at him [tajtu żewġ tiri]; nothing more.” Despite this, Mr Zammit admitted telling Mr Farrugia “warning shots” were fired.

December 4: Mr Zammit and Sergeant Azzopardi confront each other about this and once again they contradict each other – he insisted she told him “warning shots” and she denied this. When it was pointed out that Mr Sheehan had never mentioned warning shots, but simply said two shots, Mr Zammit insisted he understood “warning shots”.

Meanwhile, in his version of events, the minister said soon after he learnt what had happened he called Mr Sheehan who told him “I fired two warning shots”. Incidentally, Superintendent Mamo said that, when she spoke to Mr Sheehan at the crime scene, he told her he fired “warning shots”. Dr Mallia added that, when Mr Zammit returned from the control room, he told him, “listen, he didn’t fire at the car, but just fired two shots”.

During a confrontation between the minister and Mr Zammit, Dr Mallia told the inquiry board that both the police commissioner and Mr Sheehan had mentioned “warning shots”.

In his testimony on December 1, glaring inconsistencies emerge between his version of events and that of Mr Zammit. Dr Mallia insisted that on the night of the incident, when he was at the police headquarters, nobody had informed him that his car had been hit.

He denied that Mr Zammit had reported this fact, even though Mr Zammit insisted he had told him and even indicated where the bullets had hit the car.

Dr Mallia added that, when he returned home, he had an indication that the car had been shot at.

When he returned before the board, on his insistence on December 6, Dr Mallia said he may have learnt about this when he was still at the depot, and most certainly found out from his driver – PC Paul Vella who had been on the crime scene – while he was on his way home.

It seems that on that same night, or some time after midnight, Ramona Attard, Dr Mallia’s communications coordinator, called him to inform him there had been a mistake when “warning shots” were mentioned in the official media statement.

“In truth, the car had been hit and we were toying with the idea of a correction,” she said. The minister replied: “We’ll release everything once we have all the facts.”

Michael Cassar appointed Commissioner

Head of Security Services Michael Cassar is the new Police Commissioner following the resignation of Acting Commissioner Ray Zammit.

Mr Cassar, 58, of Żabbar, joined the police force in 1979 and has served as an inspector, superintendent and assistance commissioner working in the Criminal Investigation Department, the Drug Squad and Economic Crime Unit, among others. He is a lecturer at the Police Academy and the European Training College.

In 1994, Mr Cassar who at the time was a prominent drug squad investigator, escaped unscathed when a pipe bomb was planted outside his house in Żabbar. Subsequently, drug trafficker Emanuel Camilleri, known as Leli l-Bully, was convicted of attempted murder and given a 35-year prison term.

Mr Cassar is the fourth person at the helm of the police force in less than two years.

In April last year, soon after Labour was elected to government, John Rizzo was replaced by legal procurator Peter Paul Zammit.

However, Mr Zammit’s tenure lasted little more than a year and last July he was in turn replaced by Ray Zammit, appointed Acting Commissioner.

Times Talk will be discussing the issue tonight at 6.55pm on TVM.