We are not going to find out the truth unless we keep chasing it
The fact that Mallia has been forced out by circumstances – not by the prime minister – does not mean we should draw a heavy black veil over the story and forget about it.
This story has legs.
Stephen Smith lives on a boat moored at Ta’ Xbiex. That night, he said, he had been drinking at the Black Gold Saloon. The Black Gold Saloon on the Strand, where Sliema meets Gzira. The Strand ends where the yacht marina begins.
Smith was supposed to be heading home. That would mean driving from one end of the Strand to the other. It does not mean driving along the Strand, turning right into deepest Gzira, cutting across Rue D’Argens, nipping through a couple of side-streets and then taking a detour into Turu Colombo Square, which is where Paul Sheehan said the government car was parked (“hdejn tal-Golden Harvest”).
Also, to get to the National Pool, where the shooting occurred, from Turu Colombo Square, you have to cross Sliema Road. That’s the main thoroughfare (where Alfie’s Hair Salon is located) which links the Kappara roundabout and Rue D’Argens. Once Smith was on Sliema Road, and supposedly being chased, the last thing he would have done would be to turn off the main thoroughfare and into the dead end maze of awkward streets near the national pool. He would have headed straight up Sliema Road and onto the Regional Road to be able to drive fast.
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Which is the reason both cars were carted away and the minister’s car sterilised clean.
Will we ever know what was in the minister’s car?
Options:
1. Drugs
2. Prostitutes
3. Gay sex
4. Weapons
5. Protection money
6. A KFC takeaway
betting- boxing
All of the above?
It probably is drugs, illegal betting and loan sharks?
1) Sheehan says that he was at his mum’s house when he heard a loud bang of his car “getting wrecked”.
It was just the mirror – how would he have heard the mirror getting knocked off from inside a building?
2) In Sheehan’s account of events, he says that he chased Smith then Smith closed in on him and tried driving him into the wall. If Sheehan was chasing Smith, how could Smith close in on Sheehan?
3) Who gets so worked up over a broken mirror?
And where exactly was he, inside the building? In a room inside or by the door?
Let’s give the benefit of the doubt and say he heard the noise; he must have been really quick to get in the car and give chase to the correct car after supposedly someone told him what car it was.
“Faqa l-karrozza tal-ministru”, remember?
Faqa (smashed into) would have resulted in much more damage than a broken mirror.
Red Bull gives you wings.
There are those who accuse us of undermining the Government because we want to know this information.
Imagine their reaction to a situation like this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30401100
Pity that there were no sniffer dogs around before the cars were carted away.
It’s not a pity. It’s a disgrace. The quick clean up was deliberate.
The truth or the proof.
I don’t think he is a permanent live-aboard.
Smith said he was looking to buy some water.
[Daphne – Tosh. The late-hours shops selling water are all along the Strand.]
The original DOI press release stated that the incident, including clipping of mirror and the infamous “warning shots”, happened in Triq Wied il-Kappara. This was even corroborated by your eyewitness sources.
A few days later we found out that Sheehan was at his mum’s house which is located near Turu Colombo Square, near the ex-Golden Harvest bakery, and not in Triq Wied il-Kappara.
Sheehan and Smith somehow found themselves in Triq Edgar Bernard according to the two material witnesses this morning. Triq Wied il-Kappara is a short side road connecting Triq Nazju Ellul to Triq Edgar Bernard.
Something is not quite right here.
Where was the mirror clipped?
Where did the car chase start?
Why did Smith get out and lean against his car in Triq Bernard?
If the mirror was clipped in Turu Colombo Square, how could Sheehan run out of his mother’s home, get into the car, start the engine, manoeuvre out of his parking place, cut across the busy Sliema Road and still be able to catch up with Smith who presumably drove on?
If the mirror was clipped in Triq Wied il-Kappara, why did Sheehan leave his mother’s house in the first place and drive his car to this street?
This is all nitpicking.
How would this whole incident affect you?
The culprit is in Prison and the minister is no more!
CAN ANYONE PROVIDE US WITH A DETAILED MAP WITH WHAT HAPPENED WHERE AND AT WHAT TIME?
No. Because some of the key evidence was removed.
A veritable ‘kobba mhabbla’ for the new Police commissioner to unravel, perhaps?
Sheehan is lying. He is in court because of the shots. Testimony will centre around the shooting not the business Sheehan and Smith had together.
We are lucky that the press arrived in time to catch this.
When Owen Bonnici had an ‘accident’, it was hushed, and when it came to light it was too late for witnesses and so on.
This time it was a different story – the press were there to report everything.
This detail bothered me from the very start.
My parents live around there so I know the area well.
From Turu Colombo Square, where Golden Harvest is located, to the National Pool, to the Regional Road. That makes no sense at all.
If someone is being chased from Turu Colombo Square, the obvious thing to do is to drive towards Regional Road and not into a dead-end near the national pool.
Also was the shooting near his mother’s house or near the pool? Something I heard yesterday in the last calls indicate near his house and yet the pool area is being spoken of. This story is filthy.
As a side comment, if Smith was drinking at Black Gold and his car was parked facing Sliema, it may be that he drove up Manwel Dimech Street, but this is now the dilemma because driving home he should have then turned downwards (cannot remember street name ) in front of the GASAN block.
However this story suggests he turned into the road of St Albert (in front of Stella Maris College), and then into the square.
Why was there extra caution in looking for the casings?
Could it be that:
More shots were fired? That the two shots heard were what were officially fired?
That there was another gun used at the scene? or one of the scenes?
Where were the casings looked for?
Shots came from the grassy knoll.
As I understood it , Smith clipped the minister’s parked car near the old Golden harvest factory in Turu Colombo Square, Gzira.
Then Sheehan, on hearing the noise, somehow managed to get out of his mother’s house and chase Smith, who for some strange reason headed towards the National Pool side streets rather than straight up Sliema Road. This is where the altercation happened and two shots fired.
If indeed Smith was at the Black Gold, saloon the shortest way to get to the Ta’ Xbiex yacht marina is to drive along the Strand, turn by Giorgio’s and drive along the Strand again.
Why he ended up in Turu Colombo Square is unclear .
Why did he need to “stop for some water” – when he had just left a bar and was 3 minutes from his home – is not clear.
Why he used that getaway route, practically ending up in a dead end, is not clear.
Importantly, it appears the car was hit THREE times, not twice. One hit the roof, one hit the driver’s side rear bumper, one hit the passenger’s side rear light. When was the third shot fired? indeed how many shots were fired – possibly some may have missed the car altogether.
“one hit the passenger’s side rear light.”
No. That is the bulb of the reverse light; It is no hole. Some modern cars are being produced with only one reverse light. I know because I happened to be traveling in a car that was behind a Vauxhall Insignia.
As for the rest of what you wrote I fully agree that Smith’s version of events makes no sense when he chose to drive through the route he chose to take. The calls log on Smith’s and Sheehan’s phones are worth taking a look at. Especially in the hours that lead up to the time of the incident.
So it seems that we have been fed a false story. Smith must have spent three weeks rehearsing his lines for the courtroom.
If there are these many doubts and details, things should be pressed till the whole truth is disclosed. And I am sure it will be a condemning time for Joseph Muscat.
I have listened to the conversations a few times and there are so many contradictions and inconsistencies in them that it is hard to believe that this was simply about a broken mirror.
A pertinent question no one seems to be asking is whether the damaged car has been returned by the Police to Smith or whether it is being repaired by them to remove all evidence.
If Lou Bondi had not sold his soul to Muscat, he would have a field day interviewing the involved persons, including Smith.