Five-year sentence, €15,000 fine for man arrested after 2020 armed standoff

A man arrested in Msida after a six-hour armed standoff with police, that only ended after officers stormed his apartment, has been sentenced to imprisonment for five years and fined €15,000.

Police officers had responded to reports of a man damaging cars and threatening bystanders with a knife in Triq il-Qrejten, on November 1, 2020. When police officers from the Rapid Intervention Unit arrived at the scene, they were directed to a residence occupied by 41-year-old Serbian national Srdjan Stevanovic.

Stevanovic had opened the door while holding a knife in an offensive stance, so the officers withdrew and called for backup. The area was cordoned off and ambulances, including animal ambulances due to reports that the man kept dogs in the residence, were placed on standby.

Photo: Malta Police Force

The police temporarily commandeered a first floor flat in an adjacent building, in order to monitor Stevanovic’ movements inside his residence. At around 9:30pm, Superintendent Sandro Camilleri gave the order for RIU officers to break down the door.

But upon making entry into the property, the officers found the accused pointing a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun at them. “Today I die and I will kill you all,” he said, before showering them with abuse in Maltese. The officers backed off and Stevanovic shut the door again.

He was subsequently observed walking around in his yard holding a pistol flat against his abdomen, by police officers monitoring him from the adjacent apartment.

At around 10:15pm, a police negotiator was called in to assist and established contact with the suspect. At around 2:00am the next morning, Stevanovic told the negotiator that he had taken pills and was feeling sleepy. His estranged cousin, who had also arrived at the scene, told the police that she had stopped talking to him three months before because he was using illegal drugs.

Photo: Malta Police Force

Officials from the Animal Welfare department had supplied a tranquilliser gun to the Special Intervention Unit officers, for use on the suspect’s Pitbull-like dog, but the dart that was fired through the window of an adjacent flat had hit the dog’s hind leg and bounced off.

The decision was then taken to storm the building. Officers made entry through the front door, using a number of stun grenades to disorient the dangerous suspect. They found Stevanovic in the bedroom, holding a dagger as well as the sawn-off shotgun previously encountered by the RIU officers. The pistol he had been observed holding in the yard was tucked in his belt, shotgun cartridges and pistol ammunition stowed in his pockets. The shotgun was found to be loaded, but not made ready, while the pistol had a round in the chamber.

After taking the suspect into custody, the police carried out a search of the property. A bag containing a substantial amount of shotgun and pistol ammunition was found on his bed and on his sofa, officers found a makeshift sword, complete with handle, around 1.5 metres long. Two truncheons and a whiskey bottle, which the police suspected to have been converted into a petrol bomb were also found nearby in the residence.

Photo: Malta Police Force

Hundreds of indentations caused by knife strikes were noted on a gypsum wall in the kitchen area. In the yard, the remains of one dog were discovered in an advanced state of decomposition, together with two other dogs in a large cage.

Stevanovic’s “pitbull-like” dog had been shot during the operation when it charged at the police officers. Despite suffering a gunshot wound to its front left leg, it later made a full recovery.

During the police investigation it had emerged that Stevanovic was already the subject of pending criminal proceedings for drug possession. He had been granted bail, but had last signed his bail book in July 2020 - four months before police stormed his apartment.

A court-appointed psychiatrist had examined Stevanovic, concluding that the man was more likely affected by a personality disorder than psychosis and was very probably aware of what he had been doing. Although his judgement had definitely been affected by drugs and alcohol, he was still capable of forming intent and was fit to stand trial.

Photo: Malta Police Force

A second psychiatrist, who had been appointed during the magisterial inquiry, also declared him fit to stand trial, noting that Stevanovic had sufficient intent-forming capability, despite his long history of psychiatric problems that had led him to be committed to a mental hospital in Serbia at age 16.

The defendant had eventually entered a guilty plea to the charges.

Defence lawyer, Charles Mercieca, had argued that Stevanovic had not actually employed the use of violence against the police, “although his words could have been interpreted as threatening or outrageous.” He had not resisted arrest, said his lawyer.

But the court said it “had no hesitation to describe this argument as disingenuous and legally baseless.” “In this case, besides the insulting and threatening words, the defendant had brandished a knife at the police officer who knocked on his door and the first time they had tried to go inside he had welcomed them with a shotgun. The police had been so concerned for their physical safety that the negotiations between them and the defendant had gone on for over six hours.”

Magistrate Marseanne Farrugia noted that the defendant had been taken into custody after an operation by SIU officers in which several stun grenades had to be used.

“It is obvious that the defendant pleaded guilty when he found himself with his back to the wall, due to the shocking evidence produced by the prosecution against him… to obtain a lighter sentence. But the defendant deserves no mitigation to his punishment, because he still wasted the time and resources of the court and law enforcement.”

Although Stevanovic’s criminal record only had one conviction for drug possession, that record only reflected the time he spent in Malta as his criminal record in Serbia could not be exhibited. The court noted from his Pre-Sentencing Report that Stevanovic had told Probation Officers that he had served four years in prison in Serbia for theft, although this could not be confirmed. The same report showed that he was not inclined or motivated to address his drug dependency problem. Until he did, he would remain a threat to society, said the magistrate.

The punishment for his crimes should be halfway between the maximum and minimum, said the court. For these reasons, the court said, it had rejected a plea-bargaining agreement reached between the prosecution and the defence which had suggested a two-and-a-half-year sentence and a fine of €12,000.

Stevanovic was sentenced to imprisonment for five years, from which time already spent in custody was to be deducted, together with the payment of a €15,000 fine. Another €2,000 was confiscated from his bail security. He was also ordered to pay the costs incurred in the appointment of court experts.

Police inspectors Lydon Zammit, Shawn Pawney and Jonathan Ransley prosecuted.