Authorities in Taif have said that relations of a gunman who killed two people and injured nine before surrendering to the authorities during a shooting spree last Wednesday have been moved out of their homes in fear of reprisal attacks from relatives of the victims. Some members of the gunman's family are also reportedly being held by police, as investigations continue to look into tribal motives for the killings. The days after the killing reportedly saw increased security in the area to prevent members of two tribes coming into conflict, and investigators have been interviewing numerous relations of both the killer and his victims. Locals have described last Friday's murders as part of a “series of similar incidents”. Two witnesses, meanwhile, said they first saw the lone gunman making a telephone call at a gas station asking someone to meet him, shortly after which a man arrived who was shot down. The witnesses said the gunman then left by car and headed up the road in the branching road of a small roadside cabin. Following him the short distance on foot believing the man to be fleeing, the witnesses then saw him open fire at persons inside the cabin. The gunman then, the witnesses said, drove swiftly back to the main road and to the local police station where he got out, still holding his machine gun. Now in police custody, the gunman was said after the shooting to be in his thirties and motivated to kill by tribal differences which reportedly reached new levels of tension in Ramadan. One local source said: “There were efforts at tribal reconciliation, but they didn't work.” The shooting was the second such incident in Taif in just over a year, after six people were gunned down another five left injured at an :istiraha” resthouse in the Hawiyah district of the city.
