Edward William Johnston, a 50-year-old Irish man, claimed to have killed his former partner, 48-year-old Maltese woman Nicolette Ghirxi, before he was shot by police during a three-hour stand-off in Malta.
In a statement on Monday, the Malta Police Force said that at about 11:30 pm on Sunday, August 11, police received a call for assistance at a hotel in St. Julian’s after a man entered the hotel with a firearm and began threatening employees.
Police responded and a search began for the man, who was eventually spotted on the rocks behind the hotel.
As he was approached by police, the man jumped into the sea and started pointing the weapon at his head.
“At this point, the police officers spoke with the man who was still in the sea and even started negotiating with him in order to surrender the weapon, where the man was identified as a 50-year-old from Ireland," the police force said.
Police said that during the negotiations, the Irish man said he had earlier killed his ex-partner in Birkirkara; another police team established the address where the victim was probably at.
The police went to an apartment block in Maestro Giuseppe Busuttil Street, Birkirkara where, after knocking on the apartment door and no one opened it, the police used force open the apartment door.
As soon as they entered, they found a woman lying on the ground. The victim, a 48-year-old Maltese woman, had been stabbed to death and the the weapon that was possibly used was found near the victim.
Meanwhile in St Julian’s, after about three hours of negotiations, the Irish man put the gun down from his head and immediately pointed it at the police.
The police ordered him to bring down the weapon however the man did not comply and the police were constrained to shoot him.
The man was immediately given medical assistance on site and then transferred to Mater Dei Hospital, where he was certified dead sometime later.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the weapon the aggressor was pointing at the police was a replica of a firearm.
In connection with this case, there is a Magisterial Inquiry led by Magistrate Dr Philip Galea Farrugia LLD.
Ghirxi's family members told the Times of Malta on Monday that Johnston, who they described as having "mysterious ways," told them he was from Dublin.
Johnston claimed that he had a military background, though the Times of Malta reports that the Irish Defence Forces has said it has no record of anyone matching his details serving in the organization.
The Times of Malta further reports that Johnston ran an Instagram page under the name Edwardo Sambora which says he's the "founder of the Sambora Trading Academy." The private Instagram page, which had 12.1k followers as of Monday evening, features an Irish tricolor emoji after the username.
Meanwhile, Edwardo Sambora's YouTube page, which has 212 videos, has more than 4.26k subscribers as of Monday evening. His last video, posted on July 20, is titled "Are We All F***** Now ??? WW3 Already Started."
Johnston and Ghirxi's year-and-a-half relationship ended last December, Ghirxi's family members said on Monday.
"Nicolette had asked him to move in with her," her family said.
"Then, one fine day, she returned home from work only to find that he had moved out and returned to Ireland.”
When Johnston contacted Ghirxi a few months later to get back together, she refused.
“It was then that something triggered in him and the social media harassment began but when Nicolette contacted the police, they told her they could not trace him in Malta and was probably abroad," the victim's family members said on Monday.
“Nicolete made sure to change the locks to her apartment because her former partner had the keys but she couldn’t just change the ones to the common door.”
Ghirxi's family members said Johnston ran social media accounts posing as 'Ricardo Raspini' and 'Lisa Campo' to target his former partner, at one point making accusations about her sex life.
The fake profiles both used Ghirxi's image for the profile photos.
A family member told Times of Malta that Ghirxi had reported the posts to the police, who did not consider them life-threatening.
Malta Today separately reported on Monday that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafá said Ghirxi had reported threats on April 22 and had been invited to undergo risk assessment with Appogg, the Maltese agency that offers psycho-social welfare services, but she refused as it had only involved insults.
Two other reports about emails and messages received from Johnston had been filed by Ghirxi that month.
Another report was filed in May, her last before she contacted the police last Thursday telling them that she suspected that he was back in Malta.
“We don’t know what they could have done, to be honest," the family member told the Times of Malta regarding the fake social media profiles, which were reportedly taken down last week.
Ghirxi's family said Johnston had never been physically violent, but Ghirxi was disturbed by his recent behavior.
She even shared her Facebook credentials with a family member "just in case something happened to her."
Ghirxi noticed that Johnston was back in Malta last week when she spotted him on the dating app Tinder, which showed that he was only a few kilometers away.
The Times of Malta further reports that Johnston "boasted" about being involved in a bomb threat in Glasgow, Scotland in 2012. He was sentenced to 28 months in prison after making a threat in the Italian restaurant, Amarone.
BBC News reported at the time that the court was told that five or six years earlier, Johnston's wife had to have a termination on medical grounds late in her second pregnancy.
This appeared to have had a "traumatic effect" and he struggled to come to terms with what he saw as the decision to end the child's life.
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