Man surrenders after shooting wife
A man who shot his wife and barricaded himself in a bank in Lisbon with a hostage surrendered late last night after 11 hours of negotiations with police.
The 54-year-old man, identified as Jose Luisa Silva, was armed with a pistol and a hand grenade. He gave himself up at about 1am and was taken into custody, police said. The woman hostage, an employee of the bank, was unharmed.
The man’s wife, who was working in a hair salon next to the bank, was taken to hospital with arm and leg injuries after the man shot her twice from short range. She was said to be recovering.
Armed police surrounded the bank in the early afternoon yesterday and negotiated with the man by phone.
In mobile telephone interviews with local media from inside the bank, the man claimed he tried to kill his wife because she was having an affair with the bank manager and both were trying to cheat him out of money.
Speaking in an agitated voice, the man demanded that the president or prime minister ensure his two children, aged five and 11, gained entry to Lisbon’s Military School.
The man said he was taking medication for anxiety and had been off work for psychological reasons for the past six months.
In January, a man disgruntled over a drawn-out legal dispute with Portugal’s state TV company RTP barricaded himself in a bathroom at the broadcaster’s headquarters and threatened to detonate a bomb. He later surrendered to police.
