Shotgun owners asked to take weapons to police for tests

Police from the Criminal Investigations Branch have asked people with a particular type of shotgun to take it to police headquarters where forensic tests will be conducted.

It is understood that the weapons are being collected in connection with investigations into a murder when a shotgun was used.

The police were reluctant to say which case was being investigated, adding that investigations into unsolved murders were always on the go. There are several unsolved murders involving the use of shotguns, but there have only been five unsolved murders in which shotguns were used during the past 20 years.

The oldest case is that of Charles Fenech, a 36-year-old man from Lija, who was shot at close range and killed on January 31, 1987, when he was about to park his motorcycle in his garage.

Another murder committed by a shotgun was that of Francis Sant Cassia, 68, who was killed by a single gunshot in front of his residence, Castello Zamitello, on the outskirts of Mgarr, on October 27, 1988. Someone had called Baron Sant Cassia on his phone shortly before he was shot as he was trying to get into his car at 6.30 p.m. by a person waiting for him outside his house.

Another case is that of Victor Gauci, 34, from Mosta, who was killed by a shot in the back when he was about to open his garage door at about 8.15 p.m. on January 15, 1992.

The case bore a striking resemblance's to the murder of Charles Fenech, five years before.

Oscar Seguna, 45, was also killed by a shotgun as he was about to leave his home in Msida by van on September 30, 1992.

Maurice Seguna, a 32-year-old soldier, was another shotgun victim. He was killed while on guard duty at the Computer Centre in Dingli on the night of June 12, 1993. A soldier who was also on guard duty at the same site but in a different place, had heard three shots at about 11 p.m.

The most recent unsolved murder case involving the use of a shotgun is that of Mario Bonnici, a 45-year-old father of three, who was killed in a field at Ta' Qali on November 12, 1999. It is suspected that Mr Bonnici, who was a hunter and trapper, had had an argument with someone and ended up being shot as he was running towards the hide, where he had his own gun.

The birds he had were stolen from his van before he had laid them out on his trapping site.