An AS Roma fan probed in the
shooting death of a Napoli fan ahead of the Italian Cup Final in
May said he pulled the trigger because the group of Neapolitans
were "killing me" with knives.
"I want to say it's true, in the end I let off the rounds
but without aiming," Daniele De Santis said about the death of
Ciro Esposito.
"I was covered with blood. They were killing me, end of
story", De Santis said in a letter sent to Rome prosecutors
earlier this week.
"I'm desperate about Ciro's death," De Santis added.
De Santis also denied starting the fight, saying "I didn't
throw any firecrackers, I only picked up a flare".
"Thirty or more of them chased me and I tried to get away
but they were already hitting me on the back with sticks...then
they gave me the first three stab wounds, and then they kept
hitting me," De Santis said in the letter.
The statement backed up what the Roma fan and rightist
militant said two days ago, saying he had "only fired (in
self-defence) because I was afraid".
It recently emerged that De Santis had suffered stab
wounds.
On September 24 police said knife wounds suffered by De
Santis were documented by doctors five days later.
According to the report from the Carabinieri forensic
science unit Racis, doctors from Rome's Regina Coeli prison
examined De Santis five days after the May 3 shooting which
fatally wounded Esposito.
The May 8 medical report documented "cut wounds to the
side" and "a contusion wound on the forehead" which required
stitches.
The injuries had not been reported or treated when De
Santis was originally taken to Rome's Gemelli hospital
immediately after the violence.
He was later transferred from there to Viterbo hospital for
security reasons, and finally moved to the Regina Coeli prison.
Authorities also reported that a switchblade found at the
scene belonged to a group of Napoli fans.
Following an earlier report from the Viterbo hospital in
which stab wounds to De Santis' abdomen were reported, police
analysts said the Roma fan was acting in self-defence and was
bleeding when he fired four shots, fatally wounding Esposito and
slightly wounding others.
Esposito died 50 days later of his wounds.
Napoli beat Fiorentina 3-1 to lift the Cup.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
