‘Mentally ill’ man kills father with fork, jumps from balcony

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor began questioning a 38-year-old Syrian man on Monday who reportedly killed his father while at home, and then attempted to escape by jumping from the balcony of his apartment in Amman.

The 91-year-old victim was reportedly stabbed multiple times on Saturday with a fork. His eyes and other parts of his body were found dismembered at his home in the Abu Nuseir neighbourhood, a senior judicial source said.

Police stormed the apartment after neighbours called and said they had heard screams and a scuffle in the apartment, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

“When the law-enforcement officials finally entered the apartment, they saw a gruesome scene of an old man lying dead and the suspect standing on top of him,” said the senior judicial source.

The suspect ran towards the balcony of the apartment “and jumped three floors down and was injured”, the source added.

The source said that the suspect had been undergoing mental health treatment for the past 15 years and taking medication, “but it seems he stopped taking them [medication] recently and started acting in a vicious and dangerous manner”. 

Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said the family of the victim “had visited the Family Protection Department in the past about the matter but refused to file a complaint against the defendant or receive any of the services that were offered to them”.

“The suspect is currently being treated at a hospital for injuries he sustained from the fall,” the police spokesperson told The Jordan Times.

The motive behind the stabbing incident remains unknown, Sartawi added.

A post-mortem conducted by a team of pathologists at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine indicated that the victim died of internal bleeding as a result of the injuries he sustained from the stabbings, a senior medical source told The Jordan Times.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Issam Hadid was expected to begin questioning the suspect and hearing witnesses in the case on Monday.