By Hugh Naylor and Paul Tate
AMMAN — A 32-year-old man shot his ex-wife and her sister over a custody dispute concerning their son late Monday night before turning the gun on himself, a police official told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.
The man shot his former wife in her apartment in the Sports City area of the capital, said Police Spokesperson Major Basheer Daaja.
He added that the woman took a bullet in her left thigh, while her sister was hit in her chest and upper right arm.
Both are currently in a stable condition at the Specialist Hospital. The man, who apparently shot himself in the head, was said to be in critical condition.
The fight broke out over their eight-year-old son, according to Daaja. He said the scuffle occurred because both parents were refusing to take custody of the child.
Neighbours, who requested anonymity, said the incident occurred in a furnished apartment rented by two Iraqi women in their early 30s.
A woman who lives in the adjacent apartment building said she had previously complained to authorities about “strange comings and goings in the early hours” of the morning from the apartment.
“The two women used to leave the flat at around midnight and come home around dawn,” one neighbour told The Jordan Times. “I think they work in one of the nightclubs.”
Another neighbour said she heard gunshots at around 9:00pm followed by a woman screaming: “He shot her. He shot her.” The neighbour said she immediately telephoned the police who arrived at the scene within minutes, adding that an ambulance arrived 10 minutes later.
Neighbours, who had begun to gather outside the apartment building, said they saw a man being carried out of the apartment and placed into the ambulance.
“The man was not moving. We thought he was dead but wondered why the officers had not covered his body,” a witness at the scene said.
A woman whose apartment overlooks the one where the incident occurred said she was returning to her flat when she saw police officers jumping out of their vehicle and running into the building.
“When we got upstairs we could see right into the flat. There was a man lying on the floor in a pool of blood with a wound to the side of his head,” she said.
“I was shocked and quickly took the children out of the room but they had already witnessed the scene.”
