JEDDAH, 17 May 2005 — A Mali man planning to slay his whole family was thwarted by police during a crackdown on criminals in Makkah, but officers were too late to save the life of the man’s 9-year-old son.
During raids in Makkah on Sunday morning, security forces stumbled upon a father who had just stabbed his 9-year-old son to death and was about to murder the rest of his family.
While the security forces were conducting their raids in the Al-Barno district on Al-Mansour Street, they heard cries for help and the screams of children. The cries and screams were coming from a fourth-floor apartment of the building they were searching.
According to eyewitnesses, officers forced their way into the apartment where they found a man with a knife in his hand standing over the body of a dead boy. The cries and screams were coming from behind a locked door in the apartment.
The security forces arrested the man, Adam Ali Jando, a Mali national. The dead boy was Ali, his son. Jando resisted arrest and, in the process, injured two policemen. No weapons were discharged.
When the police opened the locked door, they found Jando’s wife and four children. According to what they were told, Adam was planning to kill all of them, one by one. The family said Adam had poured water on the floor and put live wires in it to prevent anyone from entering the room while he committed the murder.
During the raid, three plants producing alcoholic beverages were found, along with large amounts of drugs, copies of pornographic films for sale, brothels and a number of unregistered motorcycles and cars. Police also apprehended more than 300 overstayers.
