Teenager, her unborn baby ‘killed for family honour’

AMMAN — “Family honour” is the motive claimed by the man who allegedly shot his pregnant, 19-year-old female cousin six times as she walked with her husband in a Jordan Valley street on Tuesday, killing her and her unborn baby daughter, sources told The Jordan Times.  

After shooting her three times in the head, twice in the chest and once in the back, her killer went to the nearest police station, where he handed himself in to police and gave them the suspected murder weapon, official sources said. 

The Criminal Court prosecutor on Tuesday indicted a 26-year-old man for the premeditated murder of his pregnant, married cousin earlier in the day, for reasons related to so-called family honour, official sources said.

The victim was walking in the street with her husband on Tuesday morning when the suspect allegedly approached her and “asked to talk to her in private”, a senior official source said.

“The suspect drew a gun and shot the victim six times, then headed to the nearest police station, turned himself in and handed officers on duty the weapon he allegedly used in the incident,” the source told The Jordan Times.

The source added that the suspect claimed “family honour as his motive”.

The young man later reenacted his alleged crime and is currently being questioned by investigators in a bid to learn more about the incident, a second official source told The Jordan Times.

A team of government pathologists at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, comprising Hassan Hawari, Ibrahim Tarawneh and Kamal Assasfeh, concluded that the victim died of a brain haemorrhage and internal bleeding, a senior medical official said.

“The victim received six bullets, three to the head, two to the chest and one to her back.  The bullets caused internal bleeding in her vital organs,” the medical source told The Jordan Times.

The medical source added that the victim was “five-months pregnant with a baby girl”.

The forensic experts also extracted DNA and blood samples from the victim and the fetus, according to the medical source.

“We have to await the Criminal Court prosecutor’s orders regarding DNA samples and whether forensic experts will do a paternity test to the dead fetus or not,” the medical source explained.