Nicosia man shot in apartment dies, police investigating murder
A top level meeting between Chiefs of police from Nicosia and Limassol is underway on Wednesday to aid in the hunt for the perpetrators of two gun murders executed in cold blood which have shocked the nation in the space of 48 hours.
Police on Wednesday morning began intensive investigations into the murder of a man, named as Alexis Mavromichalis, who died after being shot in his home in Acropolis.
According to police, 45-year-old Mavromichalis, aka Alexoui, was shot with a single bullet around 9pm when he stood out on the balcony of his flat.
He was rushed to Nicosia General hospital to be treated for the wound on his left abdominal area but succumbed to his injuries shortly after midnight.
Police are looking into whether the assailants were snipers and have said the crime appears to have been professionally executed.
About 10 minutes after the shooting a burning car was found in the area of Kotsiatis, and police are also looking into whether the car is connected to the murder.
The vehicle had been reported as stolen earlier in the month but bore no number plates and so far no conclusive evidence has been found linking it to the crime, police told state broadcaster CyBC.
Mavromichalis was well-known to authorities having been called into court for questioning in several murder cases in Cyprus over the years.
The murder of Mavromichalis came a day after the murder of Thanasis Kalogeropoulos in Limassol and police are aware the men were familiar to each other. The extent of their connection, and its link to their murders, is being examined.
Kalogeropoulos was gunned down in broad daylight in Limassol on Monday and had been struck by 10 bullets, a post mortem showed on Tuesday, after police said they were worried about further bloodshed.
According to the police CCTV footage has been collected and is currently the main focus of that investigation’s efforts towards finding a lead to the perpetrators.
The killing of Kalogeropoulos also had the marks of a well-planned operation and clear evidence, such as fingerprints, has yet to be discovered police said on Tuesday.
The autopsy on Kalogeropoulos showed that a severe head injury and injuries to vital organs from a gun were the cause of death.
The post-mortem was carried out by state pathologists Angeliki Pappetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou.
During the post-mortem, two bullets were removed from the body.
Police had said they were on high alert after the daylight murder of 55-year-old Kalogeropoulos on the busy Amathountas Avenue and were concerned about further bloodshed.
Kalogeropoulos was gunned down on the Yermasogia street on the way to his morning swim at a beach he frequented along the Limassol coastal road, after having dropped his daughters off at school.