This story on Times of Malta is completely untrue – it is clearly the doctored version given by the minister’s driver/police
Both this website and Malta Right Now (see its report) have eyewitness accounts of people who live on that street, and who actually saw the man driving GM14 get out of his car carrying a gun and using it to threaten the other driver who had also – far from hitting and running – got out of his.
This other driver only got into his car and drove off AFTER MANUEL MALLIA’S MAN SHOT AT HIM TWICE. What was he expected to do – stick around being shot at by some strange armed thug?
Unfortunately, this episode brought to my mind immediately a notorious case from the 1980s which I read about again recently when going through old copies of Page 13 in The Sunday Times.
Army road blocks at night were the order of the day back then, but not everybody knew about them and there were no distinguishing features to tell you that this was an army roadblock.
A British man driving along at night was flagged down by a bunch of armed men carrying torches and he did what any sensible person would do: he sped right through in fear. The soldiers shot at him and hit him. Why? Because they could.
I hope that somebody from the British High Commission is over at Police HQ right now, making sure this British citizen is not being roughed up in some cell or office, only to be charged tomorrow with assaulting the police.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141119/local/updated-ministers-driver-fires-warning-shots-at-hit-and-run-driver.544812
This news is not showing up with the prominent headlines on Times of Malta like it was a few minutes ago. Now you actually have to look for it.
Who contacted Times of Malta to take off this piece of news from the latest headlines? And worse still, who obliged?
Forget The Times, RIP. It is no longer the point of reference for reliable information. It is just a Government mouthpiece.
Might as well read the Pravda.
We are back to the bad old days when as Police Medical Officer I was asked to go with urgency to the Police General Headquarters to assist a grievously hurt person.
Fearing the worst I insisted that my services be requested at least by an officer of the rank of an inspector and not by a scared constable.
I was begged to hurry and go quickly because they had an unconscious British sailor on their hands who had been badly beaten up by an unofficial Labourite thug escort (NOT POLICE) to then Prime Minister Dom Mintoff near Portes des Bombes, and they feared that he might die on their hands.
I found the young victim flat on his back, barely conscious, vomiting blood all over the place and moaning “Stop beating me”.
I was so relieved when the Military Police arrived soon after and rushed the youth to their military hospital.
The poor lad had been trying to obtain a lift to his ship from passing cars and had the misfortune to touch the aerial of a car in which Dom Mintoff was a passenger.
“Happy MLP days” are here again.
The ‘Golden Years’ are back
Fishy as hell. Far too many versions abound which do not even tally with the videos and photos (eg. were they in or near the tunnels when the incident happened? The GM car is clearly in the tunnels so it would be safe to assume the warning shots took place in the tunnels.)
In any case, why is the ministry giving updates to newspapers not (as is normally the case) a police spokesman?
[Daphne – This is how it happened. The altercation happened in Triq Wied Il-Kappara. It was witnessed (sound and vision) by people who live there. The minister’s driver waved his gun at the other driver. The other driver was scared, turned away and got into his car. The minister’s driver shot at him, and the other driver sped off. The minister’s driver got into GM14 and raced after him. The police caught up with them both in the tunnel.]
This immediate eyewitness version is diametrically opposite to what’s being updated by news portals on the basis of the ‘facts’ fed to them by government sources.
What, in the name of sanity, are they trying to do here?
Intimidate anyone from coming up with their version of events, that’s what.
Times of Malta put up a phone number under the ministry’s version asking anyone to come forward with their version of events, yeah right, and then what? Be arrested themselves?
If anything, anyone with information should call the Nationalist Party’s newsroom, because they seem to have had access to documentation showing where the bullets hit, one the rear left cluster, one the roof.
And if bushing the side mirror is a hit and run, I get those once a week.
Now is the time to call Godfrey Grima, ask him when any Nationalist minister behaved like this, covering up for lowlifes dressed in uniform.
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you read the Times, you are misinformed.” mostly Mark Twain
Quote of the decade
You and Mark Twain nailed it.
Excellent, bob-a-job!
http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/11/19/ix-xufier-tal-ministru-manwel-mallia-jispara-tiri-ta-twissija/
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.