A man has been acquitted of firing a weapon from his car in response to a driver flashing his lights at him after a court ruled there was insufficient evidence linking him to the charges. Melvin Carmel Micallef, 34, from Lija was accused of illegally possessing a weapon, firing it to scare someone and cause him to fear violence, breaching the peace and driving his BMW in a dangerous manner. He denied the charges. A court Wednesday heard how Emanuel Attard turned up at Qawra police station in May 2023 in a state of panic, alleging that the driver of a BMW had fired a shot near him at around 12.30pm that night. Attard told the police that the car was being driven erratically near the Xemxija roundabout just after midnight, so he flashed his lights at the car, causing the driver to pull to the side. As Attard was overtaking, he realised the driver had a pistol in his hand out of the window and subsequently fired a shot. The shot was not aimed at Attard, however, which is why Micallef was not charged with attempted murder. Attard provided the police with dashcam footage on which a hand holding a firearm out of the window could easily be seen. The driver鈥檚 face could not be seen, however. After establishing that Micallef appeared to be in possession of the car, Police inspector Christian Cauchi summoned him to the police station and in the meantime requested an arrest warrant. Numerous other individuals were linked to the vehicle, however, including 呕abbar auto trader Keith Sultana, another auto trader known as 鈥渓-Mumu鈥 and three other men: Paul Gauci, Luke Piscopo and Faisal Mohammed Elmuadi. It was a complicated process for the police to identify Micallef because while the BMW was registered under the Sultana’s name, it had changed hands six times. None of these transfers had been registered according to law. Micallef was arrested upon his arrival at the police station for allegedly firing a weapon while driving the BMW. The police did not find the weapon after searching the vehicle and the man鈥檚 residence. During his interrogation, the man exercised his right to remain silent. Gunshot residue During his arraignment, samples were taken from Micallef in court which were handed over to a court-appointed expert for gunshot residue analysis. Gunshot residue analysis detects lead, barium, and antimony 鈥 primary components of primer materials used in ammunition. Only lead and barium were detected in the samples provided, however, and the expert could not conclude whether these came from firing a weapon or from the environment. A police sergeant told the court that Micallef had no weapons registered under his name. Another sergeant who took Attard鈥檚 report went on site shortly after Attard turned up at Qawra police station and found a 9mm empty cartridge. After hearing from those persons linked to the car, the court observed that while the incident was caught on the dashcam footage and the empty cartridge was found, the driver鈥檚 face could not be seen. Moreover, Attard had not seen the driver. The court observed that the lack of direct evidence does not lead to an automatic acquittal, however. Circumstantial evidence It then analysed circumstantial evidence in the case, noting that the vehicle was registered on Sultana鈥檚 name and had changed hands a number of times. However, the log book was not updated accordingly. The court also observed that after Piscopo, the vehicle possibly ended up in Elmuadi鈥檚 possession. This was not confirmed by Piscopo, however, who did not know who took possession of the vehicle after him. Elmuadi refused to testify. The court held that while the accused went to the police station in the vehicle allegedly used in the incident 鈥 turning up around 21 hours after the alleged incident 鈥 this alone was not sufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Micallef was at the wheel when the incident took place. The court observed that there was no evidence to show that Micallef was in possession of the car at the time of the incident. It also highlighted that the gunshot residue test was inconclusive, the weapon was never found and the accused had no weapons registered under his name. All of this led the court to rule that there was insufficient evidence to link the accused to the charges brought against him. Magistrate Ann Marie Thake presided. Police inspector Christian Cauchi prosecuted. Lawyers Franco Debono, Adreana Zammit and Shaun Zammit appeared for Micallef.