Ballistic tests match G-3 to nightclub shooting

A MAN held in connection with the attempted murder of two Russian women in Nicosia was yesterday re-remanded in custody for eight days by the district court.

Thirty-four-year-old Petros Patsalides was detained after a 3.30am shooting incident last Sunday week.

The court heard how a gunman armed with an army G3 rifle had fired 17 rounds at the Dow Jones nightclub off Makarios Avenue at the centre of Nicosia.

Two Russian women studying in Cyprus were injured by the shots, fired from around 50 metres across the road.

At around 3.25am, gunmen sprayed a furniture shop on the corner of Larnaca and Grivas Dhigenis Avenues with 22 bullets, which ripped through the windows and furniture.

The owner’s daughter, who is a close friend of Patsalides’ ex-fiancée, told police the suspect had repeatedly threatened her, believing she was to blame for the couple’s separation.

The court heard that a ballistic test had matched the spent cartridges found near the furniture shop to the ones found outside the Dow Jones.

The suspect’s ex-fiancée was employed at the nightclub.

Police told the court that during the two months that the couple had been engaged, the suspect had repeatedly abused and threatened his fiancée, adding that after they broke up, Patsalides had continued to harass her.

At around 3am on the day of the incident, Patsalides went to the club, where he tried to force his ex to follow him back home.

The woman then asked the help of the club’s security, who, after a fight, managed to throw Patsalides out.

At that point, the investigator told the court, the suspect allegedly threatened the club’s head of security, George Kokkinos, alias Rockabilly:

“You’ll die. You don’t know who I am. I’ll shoot you.”

Kokkinos was shot in the back on the porch of his home in Strovolos at 4am on the same night. He had just returned from work at the club after escorting the suspect’s ex-fiancée to her home. He was shot twice with a pistol, and suffered sever spinal injuries.

Patsalides has not been charged with the Kokkinos shooting, and police have not been able to link the club shooting with the attack on Kokkinos.

Police last Thursday arrested another suspect, 22-year-old Andreas Christodoulou from Nicosia, who allegedly admitted he had been Patsalides’ wing man during the club and furniture shop shootings.

The court heard yesterday that Christodoulou told police where to find the G3 used in the attacks, along with a revolver, a pistol, and a number of bullets.

Ballistic tests showed the G3 had been the weapon used against the Dow Jones and the furniture shop, police told the court.

But the two handguns found could not be matched to the attack against Kokkinos.

Christodoulou, police said, had also pointed out the location of two more G3 rifles, together with a large number of munitions and explosives.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.