A man who professes undying love for his girlfriend was shot in the shoulder by another man in a dramatic confrontation in Gżira after she resorted to prostitution, a court heard on Thursday.

The woman has since vanished and cannot be traced, the police said.

The man, Reuben Galea, testified in the first hearing of the compilation of evidence against Raymond Gatt, a 52-year old Fgura man who is pleading not guilty to attempted murder. 

Mr Galea recounted how he had gone looking for his girlfriend in Testaferrata Street at around 2am on the morning of the incident, November 2.

He had been dating her for about seven months but was becoming increasingly suspicious as she had “changed” – she had resorted to prostitution to keep him from “doing wrong, such as stealing”, he claimed.

“I would do everything for her, including stealing. I would cut off both my arms for her…It was true love I felt for her,” said the man, punctuating his verbal account with hand gestures and facial expressions. 

Yet the woman, he said, would occasionally disappear after going out with her sister and return to her boyfriend’s home at Msida a couple of days later.

This had happened about three times, so he would go out looking for her in the area of Testaferrata Street, sometimes just catching a glimpse of her.

One night, he was walking through Gżira when he spotted his girlfriend inside a car, seated alongside a male driver. 

As he looked on, partly blinded by the bright headlights of the vehicle, the woman got out, walked over to the driver’s side, leaned into the car for “some four minutes or so” and then walked away.

As the car drove off, Mr Galea chased after his girlfriend, asking her whether she was dating him or the man in the other car. 

“Just come for your clothes and get out. That’s it!” he yelled at the woman. 
By that time, the car, a white Toyota Corolla with black tinted glass, had returned. The driver got out and called out to him by his nickname. 

Then he saw the glinting blade of a penknife in the other man’s hand, Mr Galea told the court.

“He probably thought that I was going to strike her,” he said as he recalled how his girlfriend had tried to break up the brewing fight. 

Instead of leaving, however, he confronted the man, threatening to push both of them through the glass of a nearby shop window.  

Mr Galea then put one hand into his back pocket, as though in the act of pulling out a weapon, when all he had inside his trousers pocket was a small, hard-bound notepad, he said. At that point he whipped out the notepad to show the court.

Mr Gatt opened the driver’s door, bent down, drew a semi-automatic pistol, placed both hands on the car roof and aimed the weapon at him, he said.

“At first I thought it was a blank shot but as I saw him pull the trigger, I instinctively put my hands to my head and turned sideways,” Mr Galea said, repeating the movement on the witness stand.

“That was when I heard a shot and felt something like being stabbed with a sharp pencil in my left shoulder. Then a burning sensation ran through me.”
Mr Gatt drove off as Mr Galea staggered towards his girlfriend. 

“See what you’ve done to me. I’ve been shot because of you,” he recalled telling the woman, who fled the scene.

The injured man struggled on for a short distance, calling out for help, before finally collapsing on the street. He was assisted by a friend who happened to be passing by. 

Although wounded, he managed to give the police a description of the car. 
The suspect vehicle then drove past and the police gave chase.
Asked whether the shooter was defending the woman, Mr Galea replied: “It seemed so.”

Police Inspector Jonathan Ransley told the court that Mr Gatt immediately got out of his car, with his hands up, and said: “Is this some frame-up?” 

The case continues.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared for the defence.
Lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene’ Darmanin appeared parte civile