27-year-old charged with premeditated murder of his friend

AMMAN — The criminal court prosecutor on Wednesday charged a 27-year-old man with the premeditated murder of his friend in the Jordan Valley a day earlier, official sources said.

The 28-year-old victim was sleeping in the backyard of his house on Tuesday night when the suspect allegedly shot him twice with a pump-action gun, a senior official source said.

“The suspect also struck the victim on the head with a sharp object,” the source added.

The victim was sleeping on his stomach and received two bullets in his back and thigh, according to the source.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died two hours later as a result of his wounds, the source told The Jordan Times.

In his initial confession to police, the suspect claimed that “there were old feuds between the two men that dated years back,” the source said, adding that they had a fierce argument a few days before the incident, “and the suspect plotted to kill the victim in revenge”. 

Armed with a pump-action gun and a sharp object, “the suspect headed from his town, which is far from the victim’s residence, to the Jordan Valley, walked into his garden and assaulted him,” the source noted.

Ali Shotar, director of Irbid’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, performed an autopsy on the victim on Wednesday and established that he died of heavy bleeding as a result of the bullet in the thigh, a second source said.

The suspect was ordered detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days pending further investigation, the second source said.