Marsascala murder | Accused spoke of ambush, ‘intent was to kill me’

In evidence given before Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona this morning, Police Inspector James Grech explained how Giuseppe Cutajar recounted the events that led to the murder of 33 year-old Kevin Gatt and the serious injury of Stephen Zammit, 32 of Fgura on March 15.

Inspector Grech said that when interrogated, Cutajar said that when driving his BMW car down to a garage complex beneath his apartment in Guzeppi Lanzon Street in Marsascala, he was followed by a Hyundai car with two men inside, and drove beside him.

According to the accused, Stephen Zammit who sat on the passenger seat of the Hyundai told the driver Kevin Gatt to shoot.

Cutajar said that he ducked as a shot rang out, and managed to slide out of his car through the passenger door and run for cover, while remembering that he had a gun hidden in the vicinity and went to grab it.

He told police that the Kevin Gatt and Stephen Zammit reversed at speed in an attempt to cut him off, and when cornered he fired back and emptied his magazine.

Even though the police later found the Taurus gun which killed Gatt and critically injured Zammit hidden inside a water tank on Cutajar's roof some six floors above street level, the accused stressed that he couldn't remember what he did with the weapon, which later transpired to have been among a number of weapons which had been stolen from a collector in Zejtun some two years earlier.

Inspector Grech said that when he was called to the scene he found Kevin Gatt dead in the driver's seat, while Zammit knelt bleeding heavily in front of the passenger seat.

Scene of crime officers established that a total of nine shots were fired in the shoot-out, while several casings were elevate from the scene.

The case continues.

Giuseppe Cutajar is being assisted by lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi.