Police Minister’s chauffeur shoots at man in Triq Wied Il-Kappara, Tal-Qroqq
Manuel Mallia, the Police Minister – his chauffeur is reported to have shot at somebody earlier tonight while standing outside official car GM14.
At 8.45pm tonight, residents of Triq Wied Il-Kappara in Tal-Qroqq, near the national swimming-pool, overheard a commotion in the street.
They looked out to see two men standing by their cars, arguing. One of the cars was GM14, the Police Minister’s official vehicle. The man standing by it was his driver.
It is not known at this stage who the other man was.
Manuel Mallia’s chauffeur was seen holding a gun, while the other man said: “Why have you brought out a gun? I’m speaking to you civilly.”
The exchange became heated, with Manuel Mallia’s driver waving his gun about, and the other man turned and left in fear. While he was getting into his car, Mallia’s driver fired at least two shots in his direction. At that point, the other man sped off, as well he might.
You will find the story on Malta Right Now. Times of Malta had a brief piece up, saying that “it is understood the Home Affairs Minister’s chauffeur was somehow involved”. Now they have updated it with what is very clearly the Minister’s chauffeur’s version of events rather than an eyewitness’s.
However, even this ‘chauffeur’s version’ published by Times of Malta is shocking in the extreme. The chauffeur is claiming – or the police are claiming on his behalf (the report is not clear about this) – that the other driver, who is British, hit the minister’s car and the minister’s chauffeur gave chase and shot at him because he got out of the car with a beer bottle in his hand.
So that’s a reason for a minister’s driver to shoot at somebody, right? Back to the 1980s, when the driver of the minister who is now Malta’s EU Commissioner was part of the armed convoy of cars that ended up driving round shooting at Nationalist Party clubs, culminating in the murder of Raymond Caruana.
More details worth knowing: the Police Minister has two chauffeurs – ex footballer Joe Galea L-Olandiz, who apparently had some difference of opinion with his employer around a week ago, and PC 533 (Paul Sheehan).
It is not known yet which of the two was involved in tonight’s incident, or if the man driving GM14 and carrying a gun was somebody else altogether.
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Just another day in the Wild West.
Whatever happened to just taking down the car registration number and reporting it to…the police?
Also do we really have so many policemen that they can act as chauffeurs too? Didn’t Mallia say we have so few that he has to bring back some very golden oldies way past retirement?
Very serious – time to have a reshuffle, Mister Joe.
Ma tantx ghandu minn fejn jghazel. Kolla qghedin sew. U dak jimkludi beck u frunt bencers.
And you really believe Joseph Muscat gives a damn about what Joe Citizen thinks?
Reshuffle? What are they going to do with this criminal defence lawyer? Make him Minister for the Economy? We’ve already got one representative of the Paceville underworld doing that, and we don’t need another.
The entire government is a mess. We don’t need a reshuffle. We need a general election a la 1998.
Not a great day for Joseph. Din kien jonqsu illum.
Joseph Muscat will not be worried about this. He will consider it a Godsend: people will now talk about something other than his bad Budget.
He’s not exactly going to be ripping his hair out. This kind of thing is normal for him. Remember he was raised in a household of Mintoffians in the 1970s.
Makes me wonder whether the fireworks industry had turf wars.
More details here http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141119/local/updated-ministers-driver-fires-warning-shots-at-hit-and-run-driver.544812
The policeman driver was not on official duty if he was visiting his mother. He should not have been driving with GM plates, nor should he have been using his gun.
Times of Malta have quickly updated their story and everything is written down as ‘fact’. I wonder who their informants are.
Minister Mallia hired a garage in Gzira for his wife, I’m told .
Can anyone please confirm?
[Daphne – Why would a woman who lives in Valletta right on top of a reserved parking area need a garage in Valletta for her Mini?]
Forsi biex jifthilha xi beauty salon tad-dwiefer, tal-extensions u tal-islimming.
Mhux ha nsemmi tal-massaggi ghax ic-Cinizi diga hadu l-monopolju fuq il-‘happy-endings’, anke jekk fil-kaz ta’ Malta, ma tantx ha jkun ghawn Happy Endings.
“Mallia’s driver, a police officer, fired two warning shots in the air. The Scottish man’s car was hit. ”
Apparently the Scottish man’s car was flying overhead.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/46375/ministers_driver_involved_in_argument_shots_fired
The flying Scotsman.
Marc Sant was lucky. He was flying by only a day ago. He might have been hit while he was ‘itir’.
“…I’m so lucky to be alive. Moreover – and I still don’t know how he did it – but the moment I fired the warning shots he suspended his car in mid-air! You can charge him with that too…”
Maltatoday writes that the policeman shot two warning shots in the air, and that the British driver’s car was hit.
Are we to believe the car was flying above the policeman’s head? He must have shot at the car.
[Daphne – He shot at the man, not the car. What I’ve given you here above is an actual eyewitness account. The other man was out of the car and Manuel Mallia’s driver shot in his direction.]
This is shocking.
Well as they say, what goes up must come down.
Heavens to Murgatroyd, that is what you get when criminals hire criminals as chauffeurs slash bodyguards.
Now we’ll just wait for Manwel’s border police to be just as trigger happy.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141119/local/updated-ministers-driver-fires-warning-shots-at-hit-and-run-driver.544812
“The minister’s driver, an armed policeman, was visiting his mother in Gzira when he heard a noise and went out to see what happened. The minister was on an official function.
He realised that someone had hit his car and gave chase.”
Why did the driver give chase with a GM plated car? Isn’t this a case of taking the law into his hands?
Chi comanda fa la legge, and these people interpret it to mean that when in power, you can do what the hell you want.
The Law Commissioner, Franco Debono in case you forgot his name, was appointed to review the whole body of Maltese law.
That is exactly what he is doing. He is at the stage where the old Code of Law was thrown out but has not yet started writing the new one.
At the moment, Malta is a state without laws.
Not only can this guy shoot at flying cars but he can move at super speed to be able to go out and see the car that hit his parked car, get in, start and give chase. He’s truly amazing.
Armed? Since when are the Maltese police armed? Let alone ministers’ drivers?
Kevin Costner hej, hareg il-pistola u qabad jispara. Ara vera qed jaghmlu mutetti bhal tal-films dawn in-nies. Il-vera moderati u progressivi. U bilhaqq, liberali ukoll.
Issa halli jtaffi l-iskanklu, l-Prim jghidilna li jkun hemm hafna sparaturi f’gurnata.
Ghax taf int, ghall-Prim, Lucjan veru persuna normali ghax hafna avukati jkunu riferuti l-Kummissjoni tal-Gustizzja waqt il-qadi ta’ dmirijiethom.
Whoever this cowboy was who discharged a gun in a thickly inhabited area, in a residential street, he must surely miss the honourable minister’s availability to act as his criminal defence lawyer.
But then again, that assumes the police would dare to prosecute, and that the Police Minister would not object.
Why did the chauffeur give chase? Surely he should have called his police colleagues rather than using the Minister’s car like it is a patrol car. But now I realize my folly. Why ask why when I know who’s involved.
Is Times of Malta’s report so confused and confusing in preparation for the muddying of the waters? If the Minister’s driver was visiting his mother, he was “off duty”; so why was he carrying his official (?) gun?
Are ministers’ drivers routinely permitted to carry guns, anyway?
No, they are not.
The car belonging to the British man has now become… taghna lkoll
It will now become Codruta’s car.
I hope that this British man has friends and family who will go to Police Headquarters and he will not be left alone.
He is seriously at risk. I mean it.
Even if they are made to wait outside. Let the police know that there are eyes watching them.
These are dangerous times.
I hope some of our top lawyers are feeling generous. Can we find out who this British guy is?
This case stinks already – I hope the British media get involved. Surely there should be a magisterial inquiry.
http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/11/19/esklussiva-xufier-ta-ministru-jispara-wara-li-kwazi-habat-ma-karozza-ohra/
When minister’s thugs start shooting at people, then it is the beginning of the end.
We have been through all this thirty years ago.
It seems the golden years are with us once again with a vengeance.
God help us.
I never dreamt I would have to go through it all twice in my lifetime.
My fellow countrymen, in their wisdom, thought otherwise.
The beginning of the end was March 2013.
Same here Anthony, and does it bring out the worst in people.
This is immensely serious. The minister’s driver, if he was the police constable and not the other driver, should be immediately referred to the IPCC for two reasons –
(a) use of fire weapon endangering the public, which is a very serious crime that carries a prison sentence;
(b) abuse of position and committing a crime he is duty-bound to prevent.
The Minister for Home Affairs then needs to be hauled into Parliament and Opposition MPs need to grill him about whether he knew his driver was armed, why was he armed, are all Ministers’ drivers armed and for what reason, and what is the firearms use protocol that is in place to regulate when, where and how those firearms could be used.
It is completely unacceptable that he should seek to forcefully restrain someone in a case where a driver hits an immobile object (parked car) and drives away – he should simply record the registration number and call the regular police.
If the driver isn’t above the alcohol limits it is not even a criminal case, it’s a civil case involving the two relevant car insurance companies.
The ramifications of this case are tremendous and no laughing matter. One of us may accidentally scrape a government vehicle and get shot at. This is abuse of power akin to what happens in completely totalitarian or quasi-totalitarian regimes like Russia.
Abuse of power has been the order of the day for decades. If that wasn’t the case then disgraced former EU Commissioner John Dalli and his criminal brother Bastjan and their ilk would have been in jail many years ago.
Muscat must be worried this story can ruin his perceived friendship with Cameron.
Don’t tell me that he fired ‘warning’ shots in a concrete tunnel!
Bloody irresponsible..lesson No. 1. never fire ‘warning’ shots in enclosed spaces. Thank God no one was killed by ricochet.
[Daphne – He didn’t fire warning shots. He shot AT him.]
You have to see this:
http://normanvella.blogspot.com/2014/11/gvern-tal-imbecilli.html
Scandals in one week: revelations that Silvio Scerri is being/was investigated for conspiracy to murder, Luciano Busuttil investigated by the Commission for Administration of Justice, Helena Dalli constructing without a permit.
Now the police minister’s chauffeur firing at someone and claiming it was because he hit and ran.
Is the prime minister going to shrug this off too?
Whats worse? The hit and run in Gzira or the shots fired? Worse still on a main road in the evening.
There are so many reasons why those shots should never have been fired.
Look at the commotion in these pictures:
http://www.tvm.com.mt/news/ingliz-arrestat-wara-hit-and-run-fuq-karozza-ta-ministru/
So it’s a hit and run now. If he ran, the driver wouldn’t have caught up with him after he came out from his mother’s house. He only ran after he was shot at. Ha jhawdu l-imhuh.
One couldn’t fail to notice the continual reference to “il-barrani” in the TVM report. Would thay have referred to the driver as “il-Malti” if it was a local? Shades of the 80s again.
(a) Times of Malta has removed the story from the prominent top part on the website and tucked it away in an invisible place under “National”.
(b) The British High Commission should lodge an official complaint with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs about a police constable shooting at a British national during a heated argument.
(c) Before we all become fair prey for these trigger-happy, gun-toting, criminal lunatics, the Nationalist Party should escalate this matter as a very serious case of abuse of power and demand immediate dismissal and prosecution of the culprit.
The British High Commissioner should stay close to this case and ensure that this British citizen is not beaten on the pretext that he attacked a policeman during interrogation.
These things happen in Malta and the time is ripe for the Golden Years of the ’80s to be reborn.
So Minister Mallia is so worried for his personal safety that he requires his driver to be armed with a gun?
This driver/bodyguard is so irresponsible and undisciplined that he pulls out a gun because the other guy comes out with a bottle of beer from a car. Or so he says.
Why is Mallia worried?
What are we missing – is this from passport sales preferences, or 500,000 euros gone missing? One of his criminal customers gone berserk? Bets on the new power station promised by Konrad gone very sour?
MaltaXinhuaToday’s reporting is utterly disgusting “fired warning shots in the air allegedly hitting the Scottish man’s car”.
The footage on Times of Malta shows a bullet hole in the rear lights of the car. No “warning shot in the air ” could have possibly made that bullet hole.
Maybe it was one of those “Dallas” type magic bullets?
The Minister’s chauffeur should be arrested immediately and locked up if it’s confirmed that he risked people’s lives simply because of bump (if it’s the case) on the minister’s car. He definitely went against his rules of engagement.
Did he exhaust all other forms of restraint before taking his gun out?
Did he use minimum and equivalent force? Was there a threat to life at the time he fired the shots?
Did he shoot when being approached (in a threatening manner) by the individual or was he moving away from him, therefore not posing a threat?
Did he give a verbal warning before firing? Did he consider the risk to bystanders before firing in a concrete tunnel?
[Daphne – You miss the point: he should have never drawn his gun in the first place. He shouldn’t even have been carrying one. Cabinet ministers in Malta do not have armed drivers. This is not South America.]
Sorry, just seen that he didn’t fire in the tunnel.
Let s forget the shoot out bit for a minute, is it the standard procedure for a ministerial driver to engage in a high speed chase following a hit and run or take down the number plate and car type and let the Police handle the case?
What is the police protocol to discharge a weapon?
Why is The Malta Independent not reporting this? I’m worried.
Back to the eighties – and in just 20 months.
In the eighties witnesses would often receive a visit from a Minister and suddenly recant. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen in this case.
It did happen even today.
I hope Mallia understands people actually witnessed what happened. Or maybe he prefers it that way. The regime can.
The witnesses will now receive a visit from some Men In Black. They will be armed with guns, cash gifts and job offers.
taking the law into his own hands
Why was the minister’s driver carrying a gun? He can’t carry one simply because he is a policeman, and an ordinary police constable at that.
Was it a service gun or a personal gun? After firing so-called warning shots the other man escaped but was stopped by the police Rapid Response Unit in the tunnel.
Why did he not call the RIU before firing? Warning shots are the last resort, and then only in a life and death situation and not because of a scratched car.
Have you all realised that it has all degenerated in less than 20 months after winning the election. They must really be in a pickle.
The driver must be cross-eyed or drunk if those were warning shots fired into the air.
He should be kicked out of the police force.
Any CCTV footage available ?
I strongly recommend the PN to offer legal assistance to this Scotsman, whose name incidentally remains a mystery.
I shudder to think what he must be facing at the moment.
Even The Malta Independent reported that it was a hit-and-run incident.
Let us, for the sake of argument, say that it was a hit-and-run. What journalists are missing is a crucial point: the use of a firearm by a minister’s chauffeur. Full stop.
What’s wrong with journalists?
Gvern Labour: jikkmandaw ix-xufiera u il-bidilli.
Manuel Mallia, the Grand Theft Auto minister.
Heq, forsi l-Iskocciz offendieh hux. Allura ihallijielu ghaddejja lixxa? La ma wegga hadd mhux xorta?
Speaking from experience, the Malta police have always been a bunch of heavy handed, lying amateur bullies.
They go to the extent of committing perjury to cover up their incompetence and failures.
Manwel Mallia must go.
I thought people were sent to prison for shooting birds out of season, in Malta. When is the season for shooting people?