A police statement has explained how Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri was shot by accident and suggests the brawl may not have been football-related.
The 28-year-old was killed this morning in a motorway service station car park when a stray bullet struck him on the neck as he was sitting in the back seat of a car.
There has been a lot of confusion over how the incident happened and the police statement still leaves some gaps in the story.
“At 09.10am two traffic police cars from the Battifolle district were alerted by the sound of shouting and noises coming from the north car park of the motorway service station,” explained the statement from the authorities in Arezzo.
“Realising there was a violent brawl between the occupants of at least three vehicles, the agents intervened by activating their siren and closing in on the scene.
“One of the agents, in a bid to induce the brawlers to desist, fired two shots. These were fired so that the fight that had broken out between a group of people – who had not been identified as football fans – did not degenerate into something more serious.
“Soon afterwards, one of the cars with five people on board continued its journey to the Arezzo toll booth where they asked for help from the emergency services. Medics who arrived at the scene tried to revive the man, but there was nothing they could do.”
The car park has been cordoned off and ballistics experts have been working at the scene all day to discover exactly how the bullet reached Sandri.
His lawyer and brother have launched serious accusations against the officer who fired the gun, suggesting it was “murder, pure and simple.”
The authorities are interviewing the officer this evening in Arezzo and it’s reported he is approximately 30 years old with several years of active service on his CV.
There are suggestions the two officers walked out of their car towards the scene of the brawl and fired two shots. The first was intended as a warning into the air, but the second may have gone off accidentally as he lowered the gun – and proved fatal, striking Sandri in the back of the neck.
Tension is sky high in Rome and there are riots breaking out around the city as both Lazio and Roma Ultras try to exact some kind of revenge on the police, who they accuse of ‘murder.’
Cars and buses have been set alight and tear gas had to be used outside the Stadio Olimpico, while a group also tried to invade the CONI headquarters – the Italian Olympic Committee.
It is rumoured that the police could opt to ban all travelling fans for the foreseeable future from football games to prevent the possibility of violence.
