Tlaa Al Ali resident faces manslaughter charges over shooting death of suspected 'burglar'

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Thursday charged a 50-year-old man with manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of an Arab national earlier in the day in an Amman suburb, according to official sources.

The 35-year-old victim was fatally shot in the head, allegedly by the suspect, at around 5am in the Tlaa Al Ali neighbourhood, according to a statement released by the Public Security Department (PSD).

“The victim was wandering around in the area in the early hours of Thursday, and the building guard notified the residents of the building about him,” the PSD statement said.

The suspect and other residents asked the victim to leave “and he did leave briefly but returned to the building, so the suspect shot him with his gun, striking him in the head”, according to the PSD.

The suspect claimed that he “did not intend to kill the man but rather scare him away”, the PSD statement said.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Issam Haddidi, who questioned the suspect, decided to charge him with manslaughter, a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times on Thursday.

In his initial testimony to Haddidi, “the suspect claimed that the victim was wandering around in the area near the building in order to rob it and that is why he fired his weapon,” the judicial source maintained.

Haddidi ran a check on the victim and it was established that he had no criminal record and was not convicted of any robberies, the judicial source added.

Haddidi issued orders for the suspect to be detained for 15 days pending further investigation into the case and interrogation of more witnesses.