'I shot because they were killing me' says De Santis-update3

(ANSA) - Rome, October 9 - 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.