Police release further detail, intensive murder investigation continues

Police on Thursday were continuing intensive investigations to identify and locate the perpetrators and establish motives for two gun murders committed in cold blood, 36 hours apart from each other, in Nicosia and Limassol.

Police have released additional details concerning two men suspected of involvement in at least one of the murders, and a meeting of the parliamentary justice committee has been convened to be briefed on the state of the inquiry and public safety measures taken by the force.

The crime bears the marks of professionals and it is not ruled out that the perpetrators may have been foreign hitmen, police spokeswoman Eleni Constantinou told the CyBC morning programme on Thursday.

The day before police released a photograph of two men suspected of involvement in the murder of the first victim, 55-year-old Thanasis Kalogeropoulos, who was gunned down in broad daylight in Limassol on Monday this week.

The photo, taken from CCTV footage, shows two men riding a large capacity motorcycle which has been pegged as a black Honda Hornet, according to police. The person driving seems to be wearing a baseball cap while the passenger is wearing a carnival mask.

Constantinou said the photo has been established as depicting suspects fleeing from the site where a car was found burning in Limassol after the first crime.

Police have asked for anyone who knows anything that may help identify the persons depicted to contact Limassol Police on 25805057, the citizen’s line on 1460, or their nearest police station.

Specially assigned officers are meanwhile continuing to comb through a very large volume of CCTV footage and assess possible links between the murders, Constantinou said.

Police are also continuing to gather evidence from witnesses and others, and are awaiting lab results, she said.

It is known that two hooded attackers, dressed in black, shot at Kalogeropoulos with a Kalashnikov rifle and a pistol from a two metre range.

The victim succumbed to his injuries at the site, and an autopsy carried out on Tuesday determined he had been hit by at least ten bullets.

The second murder of 45-year-old Alexis Mavromichalis, aka Alexoui, happened while he stood at the balcony door of his Nicosia flat in Acropolis on Tuesday night.

Mavromichalis was shot from around 45 metres away by a single bullet, whose casement was recovered by police from the scene, and authorities are examining the possibility that the murderer was a professional sniper.

Mavromichalis was rushed to Nicosia General hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds from the single bullet to his left lung.

Following Mavromichalis’ murder, a car reported stolen on October 19, was found aflame in the Kotsiatis area outside Nicosia, in a seemingly similar get-away tactic as was followed in the murder of Kalogeropoulos.

Both victims were well known figures in the underworld, familiar to each other and to police. According to daily Philenews, police have warned criminal elements to not instigate further bloodshed and have stepped up surveillance of known actors.