Last Tuesday afternoon, a 39-year-old from Catania called 112 requesting the intervention of a patrol, as he had just been attacked near the roundabout in front of the “Le Zagare” shopping center in San Giovanni La Punta.
Coordinated by the Operations Centre, the soldiers of the Carabinieri Company of Gravina di Catania arrived on site in a matter of minutes, finding themselves in front of the person who had requested help, lying on the ground near his car, having been injured in the left tibia with a gunshot. The latter, whose life was not apparently in danger, was quickly transported by ambulance to the Catania Polyclinic, where he underwent surgery to extract the bullet.
The investigations began immediately, in which the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Provincial Command of Catania also took part.
Therefore, while the Scientific Investigations Section of the Force proceeded with the technical investigations on the site of the attack, the other military personnel combed through the affected area, recovering both the images from the video surveillance cameras and the statements of the witnesses.
This activity, within a couple of hours, allowed a first reconstruction of the dynamics of the criminal episode, according to which the 39-year-old, around 3.15 pm, at the end of a pre-arranged meeting and a brief exchange of words, suffered a bloody attack by 3 men, who after beating him with punches and a baseball bat, fired 2 shots towards him, hitting him only once in the leg. The three, having carried out the heinous act, then immediately fled in different directions, two aboard a black Smart car, which later turned out to be rented, and one riding a scooter.
The attackers, as a result of the intense investigative activities carried out by the Carabinieri, were already identified during the afternoon as a 50-year-old convicted felon, believed to be affiliated with the Santapaola – Ercolano clan, and in the son of the latter, a 22-year-old with no criminal record, who allegedly used in the dispute the baseball bat and a 26-year-old boy with no criminal record, who was probably the perpetrator of the shots. The reason for the dispute could be traced back to a disagreement of a private nature, probably attributable to the victim’s work activity.
Having therefore understood the contours of the story, the soldiers of the Carabinieri immediately organized a complex search device in the area, aimed at tracing the alleged culprits, made up of patrols with institute colors and Carabinieri in plain clothes. It was thus possible, in the evening, to stop both the 50-year-old, identified while he was driving another vehicle along Via Giuffrida in Catania, and his son, found at their home in Misterbianco.
The two were accompanied to the offices of the Carabinieri Provincial Command of Catania, where they were subjected to a check for the presence of gunpowder on their clothing, in order to verify their involvement in the fire incident. The third accomplice, the 26-year-old, well aware of the intense search activities developed around him by the military, finally presented himself spontaneously on the afternoon of November 2nd at the Carabinieri Company in Gravina di Catania.
The three men were charged with aggravated bodily harm and illegal possession of weapons.
2023-11-02 17:22:00
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