The cocaine-fuelled driver who killed a pedestrian in Gżira in a crime which shocked the country on Wednesday is expected to be charged with murder on Thursday afternoon.

Jeremie 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 on Testeferrata Street at 1am on Wednesday.

Camilleri is expected to be charged with wilful homicide, which 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 black BMW car driven by Camilleri smashed into a KFC restaurant after damaging an adjoining petrol station.

The scene of the crash in the early hours of Thursday. Photo: Giulia Magri

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 on him.

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

Footage emerged on Wednesday showing the moment Camilleri was arrested and tasered by police on Wednesday morning.

“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.

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

Camilleri had several brushes 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.