Does this look like a warning shot in the air to you?
Published:
November 20, 2014 at 11:29am
To my untrained eye, it looks like Manuel Mallia’s driver aimed for the wheel of the car as he saw done in films, and got the rear lamp instead.
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Times of Malta has gone from update 5 to 3 – fascinating.
Working up to Update 1, shuttle-launch style.
Instruction 15, clause 7 Malta Police Rule Book:
The best kind of warning shot is one aimed at the head.
The devil is in the detail of course. This cowboy was not even on police duty.
Or the tank, to make the car go ‘kaboom’.
The one close to the roof implies even worse, unless the pistol is a full automatic, recoil lifting the muzzle.
Not many of those around though.
Or the tank, to make the car go ‘kaboom’.
Does not happen outside of Hollywood.
The one close to the roof implies even worse, unless the pistol is a full automatic, recoil lifting the muzzle.
Rubbish. It implies that the target was at a distance. Recoil takes place after the round has exited the muzzle.
Not many of those around though.
/facepalm
Sigh,
I said ‘full automatic, recoil lifting the muzzle’.
Pressing the trigger to fire one shot adjusts the line, a handgun with full automatic results in uncontrollable lift caused by the rapid burst.
No, not many full automatics around, given the limits described above.
Facepalm and total absence of irony. Yes we can.
Sigh. If ‘kaboom’ does not help you identify a tongue-in-cheek comment, what will?
As for recoil, you’re ignoring the possibility raised by Jozef – that the first shot’s recoil affected the second shot.
Thirdly, whatever the shot sequence, a head-level shot is obviously more serious.
Facepalm indeed.
Discharging a weapon onto a tank may cause an explosion because of the friction the bullet causes on penetration. Sparks can trigger an explosion.
Recoil starts at the point of shooting and not after the round exits the muzzle.
It is the explosion within the barrel of the gun that causes recoil and the exit of the bullet from the gun.
Recoil alters the trajectory of the bullet.
The shot is too clean to have been fired from a distance.
It’s a warning shot in the air haha.
Minister Mallia, step down please along with your rubbish private secretariat.
Brings back so many ugly memories, they will never change.
Banana Republic.
There is one central issue here and only one: why was the minister’s driver carrying a gun?
The fact that he happens to be a police officer only aggravates matters because police officers are not supposed to carry guns unless authorised to do so for specific tasks.
Chapeau!
Other publications are showing two other indications of projectile damage, one mark on the roof and one on the lower off-side rear. That may indicate three shots were fired directly at the fleeing vehicle.
If the officer’s life was not in immediate danger, and there were no other persons around, the firearm should never have even been removed from its holster.
Come to think of it, exactly why are our insignificant politicians being assigned armed guards?
Why is a convicted criminal still service in the local police farce?
Why is a firearms officer driving a ministers car around on private time, armed with a service pistol?
Some heads need to roll.
And why does a police driver park the minister’s car on the other side of Marsamxett harbour when the Minister is in Floriana and when the police are notorious for ignoring parking restrictions all the time and all over the island?
Does Manuel Mallia think this will be helpful to tourism?
Times of Malta had a fourth update about this incident which was very direct. ‘Minister’s driver shoots at Briton’ or something to that effect.
They have now reverted back to the third update, which is a much vaguer story. I wonder who is leaning on the editor.
Issa jrid jigi l-editur, jaqbad ma’ Daphne.
Kulhadd jippoppa f’dal-pajjiz. In-Nazzjonalisti nessewna dawk iz-zmienijiet, u dal-boloh ghadhom ma jistghux innizzluha.
Ghidli f’ghaxar snin fejn se nkunu.
From the video it seems that there is another bullet hole in the roof, just at the shut line of the hatch about a third of the width from the left.
If these shots were fired while the driver was in the car it is only a matter of luck that he was not injured or even killed.
Who is conducting the magesterial inquiry and who will the appointed court experts be, especially the ballistics expert?
Three shots, all three seem to be in the car. Warning shots, my ass.
Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia, acting police chief Ray Zammit and the government’s chief communications officer Kurt Farrugia are meeting at the ministry’s office this morning following yesterday’s incident involving the minister’s car.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-20/local-news/Minister-Mallia-police-chief-Zammit-and-government-head-of-communications-Farrugia-in-meeting-6736126033
Instead of calling the minister to OPM, they oblige to show who’s boss.
Stephen Smith needs help.
The emerging lie is going to be wondrous to behold.
The fat toad says Sheehan was his “security” as in bodyguard, and so carried a firearm.
Manwel, your ‘security’ just seems to have, on the facts as reported, to have committed an attempt on the life of another person and clearly not in self defence as he pursued him after the shots were fired.
You could at least apologise to the victim in lieu of your chosen security.
This looks more like The Godfather than a Western movie …. this epic scene came to mind, maybe because of the Cannoli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHzh0PvMWTI
Was it his mother he was visiting in Gzira?
Does she really live in Gzira, as someone said she lives in Hamrun,
Jekk dan il-povru proxxmu, ghax giref mera ta’ karrozza GM, laqqat tlett tiri fid-direzzjoni tieghu, lil Ministru tal-Gustizzja messhom nizzlu ghalih b’zewg F16 tal-Air Force, meta baghat povru proxxmu l-isptar wara li laqtu accidentalment bil-karrozza.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141119/local/update-5-shooting-incident-ministerial-driver-suspended-from-escort-duties.544812
When will we get to know the result of this inquiry?
God knows when, in the meantime, the ministers driver is suspended on FULL PAY.
Stephen Smith could have met the fate of Raymond Caruana who was killed by a shot to his head that came from a group of people which allegedly included Karmenu Vella’s (now EU Commissioner) driver.
If the car roof was hit by a bullet then it can certainly be a murder attempt. Sheehan would have been aiming for his head.
Manuel Mallia must shoulder full responsibility and either fire the driver and disassociate himself completely from him or else resign.
I would say that the public expects this, but since more than 50% voted for MLP it means that more than 50% do not expect better from the MLP.
Judging from blog comments neither the near 50% who voted Labour nor the other near 50% who voted Nationalist expected anything different.
The former are happy with this dismal situation while the latter are dismayed by it.
That is the only difference plus, perhaps, the shifters who now must be cursing their folly because they are responsible for the chaos.
@Francis Saliba M.D.
Yes you are right.
I knew Labour would screw things up after getting elected but I certainly did not expect them to screw up so much and at such a scale in such little time.
When they won the elections last year by such a margin I honestly thought we have the next 10 years under an MLP government, but only 18 months on with still another 3 years+ to go and with them screwing up so badly I think come next elections we will see the PN win once again.
Insomma, under the PL government, there’s no ‘ordinary’ day.
There is what is called ‘ricochet’……
I do not understand why Joseph Muscat, Manwel Mallia and the rest of the cabal need all these bodyguards/security.
It’s not as if they were Obama. They are non-entities on a little rock in the Mediterranean trying to punch way above their height.
Dal gideb kollu ghalfejn?
1. Hit and run jew hareg ghalih bi flixkun tal-hgieg?
2. Spara tiri ta’ twissija bhal ma qal il-Ministru Mallia jew spara fuq il-karozza tal-iSkocciz? Jaqaw kienet qed ittir din il-karozza biex laqata b’tir ta’ twissija li allura suppost li jigi sparat fl-ajru?
3. Fejn gi sparat it-tir, taht il-mina jew fl-abitat?
4. Il-pistola tal-pulizija jew privata?
5. Jekk il-pulizija jirrizulta li ma kienx xoghol, xorta jista jzomm arma tal-korp (jekk kemm il-darba l-arma kienet tal-korp)?
Dawn l-affarijiet ghandhom jigu mwiegba biex ma jkolniex xi Raymond Caruana iehor.
Please have patience and wait for the publication of the result of the tete a tete consultation between the police and their overlord minister – that may happen eventually and in due course given some luck.
P.S. The last version will supersede all previous versions.
Qatt temmen l-istqarrijiet ta’ dan il-Gvern:
http://normanvella.blogspot.com/2014/11/qatt-temmen-l-istqarrijiet-ta-dan-il.html
Reminds me of that Raymond Caruana hit and run.
Now that we have seen the rear of the car belying the Minister’s statement of “shot in the air”, we want to see the back of the Minister without further delay.
It’s a flying car, you stupid twits. It’s a flying car. Ask Marc Sant.
Why has no picture been provided to show the “scratched” side-mirror on GM14? Was it passenger’s or driver’s side?
If the GM car was parked correctly, i.e. pointing in the direction the car was going, the passenger side mirror could not have been hit. If it was the driver’s side mirror, then the driver would have known immediately that his car had been hit and would not have needed to check.
The bullet hole is on the rear left side. If the Minister’s driver shot while he was chasing the offending car, then he shot right across his own bonnet with his shooting arm stretched way out of the window.
I would imagine that investigating policemen would consider these very obvious points.
[Daphne – He shot at the retreating car while he was standing in the street outside his own.]
Never mind if he was aiming for the tyre and hit the bumper by mistake. Mallia said ‘some’ shots were fired. So what, only two stuck? PC Gahan should be sent back to basic gun training before he’s allowed near one.
So, our taxes are being used to pay the wages of this criminal policeman/driver/cowboy to go to his mother’s house while on duty with a public-owned car.
On top of that he is illegally carrying a firearm and using it to shoot at people with no justification whatsoever.
A government which defends criminals like Cyrus Engerer and shady people like Luciano Busuttil and now even this driver.
The only member of cabinet to be sacked by the prime minister was actually decent.
Mallia would argue in court that the shot was actually fired in the air – whether horizontally or vertically is a detail (for Mallia)
It is very easy to explain what happened. I fired warning shots, high up in the air, but the car that I was chasing suddenly started to very rapidly fly upwards, right into my line of fire.
And that is why, your Honour, you see a bullet hole in the lower back of the car.
Jekk ghal karozza jispara pistola, mela ghal dawk il 500,000 euro li ghandu d-dar x`jispara
Zulu minn nofs u ghamlulna l-wisgha, meta taraw lilna gejjin.
Hemm ergajna morna, ghal dak iz-zmien.
Magic bullets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th-s3dbboJQ