St. Elmo shooting story began with a breakup, court hears

A court has been told how a break-up ultimately led to last week’s shooting incident outside Fort St. Elmo, in which a man was shot in the leg.

The compilation of evidence against 35 year-old Massimo Caruana from Valletta began today with the court hearing Alfred Mifsud, father of shooting victim Noel Mifsud explain that the argument which led to the shooting started when he had asked Caruana’s mother to give him back his Peugeot after the two ended a romantic relationship.

Caruana is charged with Mifsud’s attempted murder, after he shot him in the leg earlier this month. He is pleading not guilty to that charge, as well as to charges of unlicensed carrying of a weapon, threatening Mifsud and his father and with breaching the peace.

Alfred Mifsud said that he had known the accused because Caruana had been in a relationship with his daughter. “I’ve known Massimo for a long time. My daughter has borne two of his children and I had previously been in a relationship with his mother,” the man testified, adding that they had lived as a family up till six months ago.

Mifsud said that he had never had any disagreements with the accused. “I had always respected him, because he is the father of my daughter’s children and his children are my blood.”

Going back to the point of origin of the argument, the witness explained that he had bought the vehicle and registered it in the name of Caruana’s mother, Anna, who was also the primary user of the car.

However, once his relationship with the accused’s mother ended, Mifsud had wanted the car back and after she had refused, he had filed a police report. The case had ended up in court and for reasons which he could not explain, Mifsud was the defendant.

On the day of the shooting incident, he said, Caruana had called up his son and organised a meeting.  “Once we arrived at St. Elmo, my son got out of the car,” said Mifsud, who had stayed put inside the vehicle. At one point, Caruana came up from behind the car in such a way that the victim couldn’t see his approach.

“All of a sudden I heard a pistol shot. I got out of the car and told my son that he had been shot in the leg. He stayed on his feet. Then I told Massimo [Caruana] ‘what have you done?’ Then he threatened to blow my head off so I hid behind the car” said Mifsud.

Noel Mifsud also testified, telling the court that the disagreement dated back months. On the day of the argument, the accused had called him up and asked him for the car’s log book, threatening to blow his father’s head off if he did not.

When they met near St. Elmo, the accused pulled out the handgun, which had been tucked into the back of his trousers, shouting “I’ll shoot you! I’ll shoot you.” The victim had tried to reason with the accused, who took this to be a challenge. “You think I’m not going to shoot you,” said the accused, who then proceeded to point the firearm at the man’s left leg and pull the trigger.

The court denied the defence’s request for bail.

The case continues in July. Inspectors Daryl Borg and Kurt Zahra prosecuted. Lawyer Charmaine Cherrit was defence counsel.