Has this clicked yet?

Published: November 21, 2014 at 7:19pm

manuel mallia

sheehan

Manuel Mallia’s driver did not bring out his gun and begin shooting as Morrison Smith drove off, whether to fire warning shots in the air or to aim directly at the car.

That’s bad enough, but I don’t think this has clicked yet: Paul Sheehan drew his gun and used it to threaten Morrison Smith when Morrison Smith was standing outside his car trying to reason with him.

When eyewitnesses heard the commotion and looked outside, they clearly saw a man standing next to a car with GM14 plates brandishing a gun at another man standing next to another car, and that other man was trying to reason with him and telling him to put his gun away.

Manuel Mallia’s driver drew his gun on an unarmed citizen in a residential street, over an argument about a broken wing mirror. He did not merely shoot directly at a retreating car (though that is bad enough). He brought out a gun and pointed it at a man in an argument about a car.




41 Comments Comment

  1. ciccio says:

    So there was an argument about a broken side mirror of a car, we were told – but by who exactly?

    Has anyone traced the pieces from the broken mirror on the street in Gzira?

    Were there any eyewitnesses who saw the mirror being broken in a car accident?

    Is this a credible reason why this story has happened?

  2. valletta calling says:

    Have you noticed Kurt Farrugia’s weird bod language during the Prime Minister’s interview? I couldn’t quite make out what he was trying to say when he got angry at the questions put by one of the journalists.

  3. Eye on Malta says:

    They may have taken the gun he had that evening, but who’s to say whether he has others?

    No check, right?

  4. Clueless says:

    Joseph Muscat is “angry and disgusted” about Manuel Mallia’s driver but not about John Dalli’s allegedly illicit dealings with the tobacco industry, nor about Cyrus Engerer’s revenge porn conviction.

    • Rokku says:

      Yes, the prime minister was angry that the driver was caught out and disgusted by the press publishing the case. Read his lips.

  5. Jozef says:

    There’s also another minor detail of the GM plates being removed under the tunnel. Footage on Net news showed the minister’s car with AQZ plates.

    That explains the open boot. And there is our man standing next to the car with its boot open. Wonder who he was on the phone with.

    • ciccio says:

      Until the magisterial enquiry is concluded, we cannot be so sure why that boot was open. How can we exclude that there was a Kalashnikov in there?

      [Daphne – I think you’ll find he had just switched the number plates and the other set was in the boot.]

    • Francis Saliba M.D. says:

      Who knows?

      Next thing the gun whose rifling corresponds to those of the bullets if recovered (two, three or “x” in number) might turn up in some amphibious craft built by the Smith Morrisons.

      Something like it is known to have happened in a previous incarnation of the Labour movement.

    • Tabatha White says:

      Shouldn’t Sheehan, as a policeman, have known better than to touch those number plates?

      Is that normal procedure: to remove them just as the magistrate is arriving?

      I would have thought that absolutely nothing should be touched, but then nothing about this incident is normal.

      • Esteve says:

        Do you really think that someone who pulls out a gun after a minor traffic incident would mind procedure?

        Anyway it is tradition in Malta to remove number plates after an accident – don’t ask me why – as much as it is tradition to play the numbers on said plate (especially when spotted on the news after a fatal accident) in the upcoming Super Five lottery.

      • Tabatha White says:

        @ Esteve

        An accident is one thing: that’s so that people don’t take note of the number in view of the car being sold later.

        This is an incident not an accident and the driver removing them is a policeman: suspended is not fired either.

  6. Mim says:

    And the only thing which the PM can focus on is that the Nationalist Party is wrong when pointing out to a cover-up.

    What a ridiculous man Muscat is.

    • ciccio says:

      That’s because he had been briefed by the Coconut and he had a ready-made answer should that question come up, so he basically invented the question himself.

      Did you notice how the prime minister was also concentrating not on the questions, but on what Simon Busuttil and the PN had said in previous press conferences and press releases? He was expecting questions along the same lines.

    • Tabatha White says:

      It takes some sort of mental preparation to counter a snide sly mind but the general catch up is happening.

      It was the intangible advantage to this whole scam that Joseph Muscat took full benefit of.

      Can you imagine individual closed circuit interaction over a long period with such a person when the perceived image the world over is that the person can do no wrong?

      And to add insult to injury this new scammer on the scene backs up the old one’s actions putting his agents at his disposition?

  7. ChrisM says:

    Exactly! Well said.

    Why is the driver not arrested and charged in court yet?

    I think amongst others he could be charged with:

    A. Committing a crime he is duty bound to prevent

    B. Firing a weapon in a residential area

    C. Threatening an unarmed person with a firearm

    D. Attempted murder

    I’m sure more potential criminal charges could be added to the list.

    This case is extremely serious. It tops every screw up coming from this government to date, yet the Prime Minister, the Police Minister and the Police commissioner don’t seem to be taking it too seriously at all.

    Incredible! If Manuel Mallia does not shoulder any responsibility for his lies and for his choice of security detail / driver then the it is the job of the Prime Minister to take responsibility of Manuel Mallia and sack him. He is shirking his responsibilities.

    Shameful beyond belief.

    Sorry about all my comments. I don’t expect you to approve it or anything. I’m just venting my anger and disgust at this government and those who voted for it.

  8. angry and disgusted! says:

    So there was no hit and run if I am understanding correctly. If that is the case, yet another lie by the police minister and the marmalja lejburista!

  9. Cliff says:

    Att: website admin, this is not a comment.
    I would like a link /address to upload a video.

    You have my email.

    [Daphne – You can email it to [email protected]]

  10. bernie says:

    Prim Ministru u Ministru irresponsabbli

    Il-Prim Ministru qal li kien se jistenna l-inkjesta u jekk jinstab li l-Ministru hu responsabbli ghall-cover up, allura jrid jerfa’ r-responsabbilta’ politika. Hasel idejh aktar minn Pilatu.

    Ebda inkjesta m’hi se ssib lill-Ministru Mallia responsabbli li kien hu li ordna li tinhareg il-verzjoni tal-fatti fl-ewwel stqarrija tad-DOI. Dan se jkun bizzejjed ghall-Prim Ministru biex jghid li Mallia hu ‘innocenti’.

    Kemm il-Prim Ministru kif ukoll Manwel Mallia diga’ qed jilqghu ghal dan billi sostnew li l-informazzjoni kif harget kienet dik kif twasslet mill-post tal-incident.

    Dan ma jnaqqas xejn mir-responsabbilta kbira li kellhom li, f’kaz daqshekk serju kellhom ikunu certi mill-informazzjoni li nghatat.

    Nistaqsi. Min ghadda l-informazzjoni hekk kif harget fl-ewwel stqarrija ? Qaghdu biss fuq il-verzjoni tax-xufier ? (Nistenna li l-inkjesta tistabbilixxi dan ukoll. Izda wisq nibza’ li l-inkjesta se tkun koncentrata biss fuq l-incident tal-hsara fil-vettura tal-Ministru u l-isprar li sar.)

    Issa li l-affarijiet huma aktar cari, x’passi ttiehdu kontra x-xufier ghall-uzu ta’ arma tan-nar fil-pubbliku minghajr raguni valida skont il-ligi ? Sempliciment sospensjoni ?

    Fi kwalunkwe kaz, il-Ministru Mallia, anke jekk ma kienx hu li ta l-ordnijiet ghall-istqarrija, wettaq nuqqas serju meta thalla li jbellghulu affarijiet li hu kien kuntent li jisma’. U Manwel Mallia jiftahar li hadd ma jbellaghlu ross bil-labra.

    Naturalment issa jinstab il-haruf tas-sagrificcju u jehel b’kollox hu. Ovvja li la l-Ministru Mallia u lanqas Joseph Muscat m’huma hrief.

  11. Philip says:

    Do your eyewitnesses remember if the cars were parked properly during the altercation?

    Strange; once they had already come out of the car to discuss the alleged mirror scratch, how could this have led to a leap into a car-chase? Gun shots and all?

    Or were they double-parked? Middle-of-the-road style as one does when you have an accident and just stop. This would make it more believable.

  12. Kif inhi din? says:

    Anyway, why was the Minister’s driver visiting his mother in the minister’s car?

  13. Reuben Pullicino says:

    Are we sure that Mr Morrison Smith was brandishing a beer bottle? None of the eyewitnesses ever mentioned it, except for it to appear in the Times of Malta report with the whole bag of lies released by the government. All of the eyewitnesses seem to have seen the Scot just trying to reason things out while John Wayne was pointing a gun at him.

    • Redneck says:

      You are right sir. The beer bottle was mentioned at around the same time as the “warning shots”.

      My theory is that it was another attempted cover up, to try and pass the shooting as an act of self-defence.

  14. Kanun says:

    Plato, in The Republic, asks – Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? -which is literally translated as “Who will guard the guards themselves?”.

    I really hope that there will be enough sane people in Malta, to rid us of these amateurs in three years’ time.

    • Francis Saliba M.D. says:

      In Malta these guardians are more than capable of guarding their interests very well without outside help, thank you very much!

      A more appropriate translation of Plato (or Juvenal) would be “Who watches (supervises) the watchmen themselves”

    • anthony says:

      Kanun, yours is just wishful thinking.

      I am sorry to disappoint you but no, there are not enough ‘sane’ people who can tell these rogues for what they are.

      The great majority of Maltese people are charming, genuine, respectful and loveable.

      I have met around 50,000 of them in a career spanning fifty years.

      Maltese people are the best, I can tell you.

      When you talk of IQ and moral courage, then, that is a very different story.

      Maltese people are very, very gullible.

      They do not analyse the information they are fed.

      They take it at face value.

      Do not forget that “omm il-gifa qatt ma taghli”.

      This is the truth of the matter.

  15. Brian says:

    Meanwhile, back in Blighty an MP was forced to resign over a silly tweet (Unfortunately for her, she must have never heard of Malta Labour’s government’s shenanigans…maybe Manuel could have given her a tip or two).

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11244687/Labour-front-bencher-Emily-Thornberry-sacked-over-prejudiced-flag-tweet.html

  16. edgar says:

    It was reported that Morrison Smith’s level of alcohol was 3 times above the normal level. Are we sure that this is not another lie by the police. Sorry not to believe the police statement, but I have lost all my trust in them.

    • Francis Saliba M.D. says:

      There is no such thing as a “normal” level of alcohol in the blood.

      There is only an arbitrary legal limit that varies from country to country above which it is illegal to drive because a significant impairment of driving skill is assumed.

      At low levels of blood alcohol concentrations the actual degree of impairment to drive would vary from person to person at the same level of blood alcohol concentration.

  17. Rorschach says:

    And I bet the moment Sheehan realized he was facing a Brit, his rage multiplied a hundredfold.

    All the years of Labour’s antagonism towards the British, as evidenced by their antics during Prince William’s recent visit; all the hostility and feelings of inferiority that have been festering within Labourites ever since they were ditched at the political altar, it all came bubbling up to the surface in this one man in this one instance.

    No way was he going to let a Brit get away with this.

    Not this time. Not again.

  18. Makjavel says:

    How can a magistrate’s inquiry be made when the cars were removed before a magistrate made an appearance?

    How do you let traffic go through a crime scene?

    Where did the shooting actually happen, and was this area cordoned off as a crime scene should be?

    But then according to Mallia it was only a hit and run and two warning shots.

    But who the hell decides what the police should do – is it Mallia or police rules and regulations, and the Commissioner?

    We have a crook for a minister and an incompetent for prime minister.

  19. Qeghdin Sew says:

    Sheehanzru, madonna.

  20. Busy mum says:

    Am I the only one thinking that the broken mirror reason was not the real trigger? And coincidentally Morrison Smith’s lawyer is/was Manuel Mallia? Perhaps the best criminal lawyer around? I have my doubts.

  21. QahbuMalti says:

    I’d love to know who Paul Sheehan called for help.

    Manwel Mallia’s excuse is that incorrect information was given to the Ministry.

    If it came first hand from Sheehan to Mallia you can be sure that ‘the top criminal lawyer’ asked all the right questions including “Now tell me the truth and let me handle it from here”.

  22. smiley says:

    Thank God the same minister stopped police officers from training at the Police Academy every month, because that driver would have hit Morrison Smith when aiming at him.

    Thank you, Mallia, for your vision. You know very well with whom you’re hanging around.

  23. silvio Farrugia says:

    So if there were no witnesses probably the ” PM would not be angry and disgusted ‘

    • Denis says:

      Rest assured, ‘angry and disgusted’ is what was expressed by the British High Commissioner.

      The Prime Minister just repeated something he could have never compose from his own feeling or vocabulary knowledge.

      Qatta qlafat.

  24. Sandra says:

    I can’t understand this: why isn’t Sheehan behind bars?

    Tajba din, they put the victim behind bars instead of the culprit. Only in Malta.

  25. gaetano pace says:

    Whatever happened at Gzira is tragic. Whatever ensued from Castille and the Ministry of Internal affairs is tragedy incarnate and very disgusting and revolting.

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