Italy: Policeman shoots youth dead
01 June 2000
On 20 July, 17 year-old Mario Castellano was shot dead by a police officer in Agnano, Naples, after he failed to stop his moped after being chased because he was not wearing a crash helmet (for which he could have been fined or reprimanded). The police officer, Tommaso Leone, was arrested on 24 July when the charge of involuntary manslaughter was changed to murder, in spite of his claim that he fired by mistake. Gianni Di Gennaro, the head of the Naples police force, accepted that there must be a judicial investigation: "If we have made mistakes, we will pay for the mistakes we committed.
Giovanni De Bernardo a 28-year-old who works in the nearby race track, witnessed the scene and confronted the policeman, slapping him, after the shooting. Leone allegedly threatened him, saying "Leave or I'll arrest you." De Bernardo claims that he saw the police car chasing the moped, until it stopped near a roundabout.
The policeman got out of the rear door and took up a position behind a bush, which the boy on the moped was about to pass. When he arrived, the policeman jumped onto him from behind the hedge. But he got his timing wrong and fell to the floor. "... [As the youth was getting away, Leone took out his gun] "knelt down, aimed and fired.
Castellano bled to death within a minute: the autopsy confirmed that it was the bullet which hit his back, and not the fall, which caused his death. The ballistic report said that the bullet had an upward trajectory. Leone was based at the Bagnoli police station flying squad (volante). Castellano's girlfriend was quoted saying of Leone: "The bastard used to persecute him", and his aunt, Patrizia Battimelli, said: "he knew Mario well, he had fined him before." Leone denied that there was any ill-feeling between him and Castellano. He added "I only recognised him after I shot, when I saw him bleeding on the ground."
Leone is detained in isolation in Santa Maria Capua Vetere military jail in the province of Caserta. He is reportedly suffering from depression, upset about the shooting, his treatment by the media, and the lack of support and protection he received from colleagues. Repubblica reports that he is under 24-hour surveillance by conscript soldiers, in an institute where police, carabinieri and customs officers who are facing prosecution are detained. According to Repubblica, investigators discovered that in 1997, a medical commission found him not suitable for police patrols due to psychological instability. Later that year, the ruling was reversed.
Il Messaggero 25.7.00; 11 Manifesto 22 & 25.7.00; Repubblica 23, 24 & 26.7.00