A drug dealer has been shot dead by his relative moments after he was freed from jail by the government to de-congest the prisons over the spread of coronavirus.Sari Salem Wardat, 46, was shot in the back of the head by his cousin in an apparent accident
A man has been shot dead by his cousin in an apparent accident in northern Jordan on the day the victim was released from prison.
Police and family members confirmed that the incident took place on Monday and the shooter has been identified as the victim’s distant cousin Ahmad Salamah Wardat.
In the video, Sari arrives in a blue car amid a hail of off-screen celebratory gunfire. Sari exits the car and is approached by Ahmad, who points a handgun skywards. The weapon appears to jam twice before Ahmad fires a shot, after which it appears to jam again before he fires six shots into the air. Then as the two men walk along the road, Ahmad appears to fiddle with the gun and fires one more shot at Sari, who immediately drops to the road.
The incident took place in the town of Amrawah, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital, Amman, close to the country’s border with Syria. The roughly 9,000 residents of the town are mostly from the same Wardat clan.
Sari, a father of five, had been serving an eight-month prison sentence for carrying an unlicensed weapon and resisting arrest, according to police and relatives, and was released two weeks early in line with special government measures to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus in Jordan.
In addition to imposing a tight lockdown last month in an attempt to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the country, the government has ordered the early release of some prisoners. All public gatherings are prohibited under the measures.
Police sources told Al Jazeera that Sari was a drug dealer and smuggler, an account that was confirmed by family members on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Ahmad Wardat is a member of Jordanian Armed Forces. Relatives who witnessed the shooting said he was using a seven-millimetre modified gun that frequently jammed.
The relatives said that Ahmad “was not very bright”. They described a separate occasion several years ago when he fired a pump-action pellet shotgun during a wedding, wounding six people.
Relatives said the shooter said he thought he had fired all of his bullets not knowing that the last bullet had jammed in the magazine that killed Sari.
In a video going viral on social media, the man had arrived in his home to a gunfire welcome organized by members of his gang and family.
While in the mood of celebration, one of the men who had fired several shots into the air, mistakely shot him from behind.
He was reported to have died from the wounds sustained from the accidental discharge.
Watch the drug dealer death :
“@AladhamHani: This man is a drug dealer, whom the government removed from prison to relieve crowding, due to #CoronaVirus, and when he arrived home, his relative opened fire to celebrate his return, and he accidentally shot him, resulting his death! #gbasgbos pic.twitter.com/hwYVM73KGk
— ?????ℝ????ℂ (@Gidi_Traffic) April 18, 2020
