JEDDAH, 11 October — A mentally deranged Saudi went on a shooting spree Tuesday night, killing a compatriot and injuring two expatriate workers — a Sudanese and a Pakistani.
The man started firing sporadically from the terrace of his house on Electricity Street in the King Faisal District, east of Riyadh. He was spraying passersby with machine-gun fire.
Okaz newspaper identified the Saudi victim of the gunfire as M. Al-Motairy and the alleged gunman as M.M. Al-Qahtani, but did not mention their first names.
Al-Qahtani’s neighbors said the man committed the crime after his already unstable mental state suddenly worsened. Three years ago, he carried out a similar attack. On that occasion nobody was injured.
Police stormed into Al-Qahtani’s house soon after the incident and caught him, with the help of a local Saudi resident.
He was taken to the King Fahd Hospital for treatment to his hand, which had been injured in the gunfire.
Police confiscated drugs and other intoxicants from the gunman’s house.
According to Okaz, the man started shooting in the early hours of the morning.
Talq Al-Otaibi, a neighbor who lives on the opposite side of the street only 15 meters from the gunman’s house, said Al-Qahtani had fired at his wife and daughter.
"By the grace of God, the bullets did not hit them," he added.
Al-Otaibi tried to reason with the gunman after the latter started shooting at his house. "But he just threatened to kill me," Al-Otaibi said.
Far from being placated, the gunman then opened fire on his house — 11 times.
The shooting caused a number of cars and a small grocery shop in the area to catch fire.
The gunman is described as being in his forties, middle class and married with three daughters and five sons.
Okaz also stated that he was a drug addict.
In a separate incident of apparently mindless violence, a female expatriate who works as a specialist in naturopathy at a private clinic in Jeddah beat up her Saudi female colleague, a nutritionist, in front of visitors.
The Saudi nutritionist tended her resignation to the clinic’s authorities after lodging a complaint to the police.
Dr. Samir Lingawi, heath director in Jeddah, told Al-Madinah newspaper that the issue was not his department’s concern.
"It comes under the jurisdiction of the clinic and it should carry out an internal investigation," he added.
