Man claims he killed wife accidentally while trying to prevent suicide attempt

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Monday charged a 42-year-old man with manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of his wife at their home in Mafraq on Saturday, a senior judicial official said.

The 30-year-old victim’s body was dumped from a pickup truck that stopped in front of Mafraq Public Hospital and then drove off.

Eyewitnesses wrote down the licence plate number of the vehicle and gave it to police, who identified the driver as the victim’s husband.

The father of three children aged 11, eight and four, reportedly confessed in front of Criminal Court Prosecutor Salah Taleb to “shooting his wife by accident with a pump-action rifle”, the judicial official told The Jordan Times.

In his initial testimony, the suspect claimed that he had a heated argument with the victim a day before the incident, according to a source close to the investigation.

“The suspect claimed that the following day his wife grabbed his pump-action rifle and threatened to shoot herself,” the source told The Jordan Times.

The suspect claimed that he tried to prevent her from shooting herself and “in the process he pulled the trigger and accidentally shot her,” the source said.

The suspect, who works as a driver, then claimed that he rushed his wife to the hospital in Mafraq, some 80km, northeast of Amman, “left her there on a wheelchair and returned home to look after his children”, the source added.

The suspect claimed that police called him after verifying his licence plate number from witness accounts and “he went to the police and turned himself in.”

Taleb referred the weapon to the criminal lab for examination and lifting of fingerprints, the judicial official said.

“These are the husband’s claims but the weapon, as well as swabs taken from the victim and the suspect’s hands by criminal lab technicians will hopefully reveal more details that will help the investigations,” he added.

Pump-action rifles have a long barrel and “are not the kind of weapons people use to commit suicide”, the judicial official explained.

Taleb issued orders for the suspect to be detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days for further investigation and questioning, the official said.