The police are in possession of footage showing Jeremie Camilleri's BMW travelling at high speed directly at the victim of Wednesday morning's horrific incident. 

This, according to sources close to the investigation, proves the intent to kill and is the reason why they have opted to charge him with murder during the arraignment at around 5.30pm on Thursday.

Camilleri, a 33-year-old Maltese-French national who lives in Lija, was driving the car that crashed into Pelin Kaya, a 30-year-old Turkish woman, who was walking by the Paul & Rocco petrol station on Testeferrata Street at 1am on Wednesday.

Jeremie Camilleri is being charged with the murder of Pelin Kaya.

The black BMW car driven by Camilleri smashed into a KFC restaurant after damaging an adjoining petrol station. The driver allegedly tested positive for cocaine and alcohol during tests carried out at Mater Dei Hospital in the aftermath of the accident.

The sources said the footage obtained during the investigations showed how the driver drove straight into Keya. The sources said prosecutors believe the fact the car did not swerve shows that the driver had not lost control of his car, as they initially suspected.

Witnesses said the driver, who was later found to have high levels of cocaine and alcohol in his blood, then got out of the car and threw stones at the victim as she lay on the ground.

He was also aggressive towards passers-by who tried to help the woman and then resisted the police, who used a taser to restrain him.

“Take me down easy, take me down easy,” Camilleri can be heard telling police officers, as they ordered him to get down on his knees.

He walks out of view and then falls backwards before getting up and turning to run away. Police then used a taser on him and restrained him once he was on the ground.

Other CCTV footage of the crash showed Camilleri walking out of the vehicle, apparently unscathed, and striding across to the other side of the road.

Sources told Times of Malta that police do not believe that Kaya and Camilleri knew each other.

Wilful homicide carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and means the prosecution believes Camilleri intended to kill.

The young woman, described as a "wonderful person" by friends and colleagues, was pronounced dead at Mater Dei Hospital after being rushed there by an ambulance crew.

A bouquet of flowers placed in front of the KFC outlet where Pelin Kaya was killed. Photo: Giulia Magri

This is not Camilleri’s first brush with the law, with his most recent conviction coming just two weeks ago on January 4, when he pleaded guilty to petty theft from health food stores in Sliema and Attard and breaching a probation order.

On that occasion, the court said that it was "ready to offer the defendant one last opportunity to clean up his act” and placed him under a three-year probation order.

Camilleri was also involved in another incident last November, when somebody threw a small explosive device into his home through a window and then fled.

Lija residents who spoke to Times of Malta said Camilleri is notorious in the area, with neighbours saying they had seen him shouting and verbally abusing his mother in the street where the family resides.