Police commissioner vetted 'warning shot' statement while Mallia was at depot

The statement issued by the government on the night of Wednesday 19 November – claiming that ministerial driver Paul Sheehan fired two warning shots in the air – was approved by Acting Police Commissioner Ray Zammit while home affairs minister Manuel Mallia was present at the Police HQ in Floriana, MaltaToday can confirm.

Heads are expected to roll because of the contents of the government statement, now the subject of an independent inquiry headed by retired judge Albert Magri that will be concluded in the coming days.

The government statement, MaltaToday has established, was based on reassurances from the police chief and home affairs ministry staff that the two shots which Sheehan fired had been “warning shots”. The shots had in fact hit the car being chased after it barged into the parked ministerial car.

The government statement was issued at 11:15pm on 19 November. Though it claimed that police constable Sheehan, detailed as security driver to the home affairs minister, had fired warning shots, Sheehan himself had actually informed Zammit that he fired two shots at Smith; and that Zammit himself had been informed by officers on site that Smith’s car was hit by two bullets. 

The statement was approved by Zammit while Mallia was also at the police depot, whose presence is corroborated in part by an edited transcript of Zammit’s recorded telephone calls, released by the PN on Friday evening: it is indeed alleged that Mallia’s voice can be heard in the background.

But Mallia, who now faces a motion of no confidence in parliament, has claimed in the House of Representatives that he had not been consulted about, nor seen, the statement on the shooting incident involving his security driver before it was issued.

MaltaToday has also established that the shots were fired while Sheehan was actually in telephonic contact with the police control room, allegedly summoning the assistance of the Rapid Intervention Unit, and that the shots were heard by police officers taking the call.

On the night, Mallia was attending a function at the Police Depot when the information on the incident was relayed to the minister by Zammit himself.

Minutes after the shooting, the minister got in touch with his driver to ensure that his (the minister’s) daughter was safe and after being reassured that the daughter was at the house of Sheehan’s mother in Gzira, he was told by Sheehan that somebody had driven into the ministerial car and that he fired warning shots.

Once the Office of the Prime Minister got to know about the shooting, the government’s chief communications director, Kurt Farrugia called Zammit to gather information.

MaltaToday has established that Farrugia drafted a media statement based on the information he was given by Zammit, and that the draft statement was sent to a number of persons, including Mallia and his chief of staff, Silvio Scerri.

At around 10:30pm, Farrugia asked Zammit to confirm the details in the statement before this could be sent to the media and minutes later the acting Commissioner approved the statement while Mallia was still at the Police HQ.

The statement was then issued at 11:15pm, claiming that shots were fired in the air following a hit and run traffic accident. However, photos published in the press revealed that the shots were fired in the direction of Smith’s car, which was hit.

The statement explained that upon hearing the sound of the impact when the ministerial car was hit, Mallia’s driver rushed out from the house to check what had happened, realised that the car had been hit and gave chase to the foreigner.

The ministry claimed that Smith attempted to force the minister’s car, as it gave chase, into a wall in the Tal-Qroqq area, and that Smith had threatened Sheehan with a beer bottle. Mallia’s driver was then said to have fired “two warning shots in the air” but photographic evidence soon showed that the bullets had lodged in the car.

Although on the night of the incident, MaltaToday reported online that two bullet holes were visible in Smith’s car, the home affairs minister’s chief of staff, Silvio Scerri, contacted the MaltaToday newsroom to insist that the shots fired were “warning shots”.

The photo published by MaltaToday shows a bullet hole above the rear windscreen, in the car’s roof, and another in the rear bumper.

Once these details emerged the day after the incident, a news conference was held at Mallia’s ministry in Valletta in which the minister described the shooting as an “unfortunate incident” adding that “it is a pity there are people trying to give a distorted picture of what really happened”.