The man charged with a murder of a policeman and wounding another near the Grand Mosque has admitted his crime before a judge in Makkah Sunday. The case was referred to Makkah General Court from the Commission of Investigation and Prosecution, which had earlier quizzed the 30-year-old man over Saturday's crime. The two policemen, in plain clothes, stopped the man Saturday early morning near the Grand Mosque at a bus stop for suspicious behavior. When they searched his handbag, they found a small piece of hashish. The man then backed off a few meters, pulled out a pistol, and shot at the two policemen. When they fell, he dropped his gun and waited at the crime scene. He was heard murmuring something, said eyewitnesses. Al-Mowaled crept to his police vehicle and dispatched a call for help. When the police arrived, the killer gave himself up. “I've shot them. I am here waiting for you,” he told the police officers who arrived on the scene. The killer, 30, was later identified as a former police officer who was fired from the service for possession of drugs. Mahdi Al-Fahimi, brother of murdered policeman, said the funeral was attended by a large concourse of friends, relatives, and high ranking officers of the Public Security Department on Saturday. The family has also received the condolences of Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister, he said. The prince's condolences were conveyed by Brig. Gen. Yousef Mattar, chief of the Makkah Police Region. “My brother was not supposed to be on duty that day,” Mahdi said. He was enjoying his annual break when he was recalled to service to cover for a colleague who was going away on a family emergency, he said. “He was killed two hours away from finishing his duty,” he said. Al-Fahimi has a two-year-old daughter, Lamar. And he was digging out from under a mountain of debt of over SR200,000, Mahdi said of his brother. “He did not even have a home of his own,” he added. Meanwhile, Al-Mowaled, who is still hospitalized but is in stable condition, has received a call from Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs, said Hussein Al-Mowaled, injured policeman's brother-in-law. The prince checked on Al-Mowaled's health and whether he needed to be taken to a different hospital, he said. Al-Mowaled will be discharged in a few days, a hospital source said.
