A bloody Monday near the ‘drug forest’ of Milan. A patrol of uniformed and plainclothes officers is carrying out an anti-drug service in via Impastato, in the Rogoredo district, a well-known drug dealing area in the city.
Shortly before 6pm, according to the police’s initial reconstruction, a 28-year-old Moroccan man with a history of drug dealing and resisting a public official approached while the officers were stopping an alleged drug dealer. The man points a weapon at the patrol. A policeman, after ordering him to stop, shoots him in the upper part of the body. The 28-year-old’s gun was discovered only later, but it contained blanks.
The young man falls to the ground lifeless: the 118 rescuers who arrive shortly after can only confirm his death. The medical examiner and the forensic men also arrive. The investigations, conducted by the Flying Squad, are coordinated by the prosecutor on duty Giovanni Tarzia, who went to the site, and are also followed directly by the prosecutor Marcello Viola.
Everyone will have to reconstruct in detail a news story that will inevitably cause discussion, instinctively bringing to mind what is happening across the ocean.
The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, is aware of this. “The first news obviously still suffers from a margin of approximation” declared the minister. “I have no reason to presume on the legitimacy or proportionality of the intervention made, but we are not giving immunity shields to anyone. The competent authorities will now examine the case – added Piantedosi – I only ask that they not make presumptions of guilt. For my part, I assure you that there will be no immunity shields. We will calmly return to the evaluation of what the events will have been”.
ANSA AgencyThe death of the twenty-eight year old inevitably inflames the political debate, with the League immediately taking sides, together with its leader. “I am on the side of the policeman, without ifs or buts” commented Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. The note from his party is even more explicit: “Solidarity with the women and men in uniform who defend respectable citizens every day. The hope is that, given the tragedy that has just occurred in Milan, no agent will unjustly end up in the meat grinder. The League reiterates the need for the security package, also to help the police to protect citizens with ever greater effectiveness”.
Fratelli d’Italia MP Riccardo De Corato, former deputy mayor of Milan, also made a reference to the shooting: “From thefts and attacks to even shootings in broad daylight. This is what happens in the city of Mayor-Security Councilor Sala, who is once again absent. It has never been seen in recent years that a mayor decided to keep the important and strategic delegation of security to himself for so many months.”
The reactions on the centre-left side were cautious. “I won’t go into the single episode” preferred to say the leader of the M5s, Giuseppe Conte. “But regarding the general climate for security, the Government has said that everything is fine, despite the increased numbers of rapes, robberies and various types of violence.”
The clash over security in Milan reignites on the very day in which there was already discussion about the rumor of American ICE agents ready to land in Milan for the Winter Olympics. According to sources at the US embassy in Rome, “ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations will support the Diplomatic Security Service of the US State Department”. The risk is that tension in the city could return as high as it did after the death of Ramy Elgaml, the 19-year-old Egyptian who died on November 24 after a chase by the police.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
