A brutal crime shocked northern Italy this week. Gabriele Vaccaro, a 25-year-old who had played as a right back on amateur soccer teams in Sicily, died after being attacked with a screwdriver in the neck during an altercation in the parking lot of a nightclub early Sunday morning. Three young people were arrested as allegedly responsible for the crime, the trigger of which would have been an inappropriate comment directed at a woman that sparked a fatal fight.
According to the reconstruction of the events, Vaccaro left a nightclub around 3:30 in the morning with two friends when he was intercepted by the attacking group in the parking lot. A single blow with the sharp object to the neck caused the fatal wound.
The victim was still able to tell his friends “I’m not feeling well, take me home” before being rushed to hospital, where he died shortly after. One of his companions was also injured in the abdomen during the fight. The security cameras of the premises and the parking lot, together with the testimonies of witnesses, allowed the authorities to identify and arrest the three suspects in the hours following the crime.
Vaccaro’s death generated a wave of solidarity in Favara. Members of the Castrumfavara team, a shirt that the young man also wore, organized a procession with candles in his memory. In the club’s last official match, with a 3-1 victory against Città di Gela, they hung a flag in the stadium with the message “Your smile will live forever”while family and friends arrived at the Pavia hospital to accompany their parents Salvatore and Lia and their younger sister Erika in one of the most painful moments of their lives.
The investigation continues to advance under the direction of prosecutor Fabio Napoleone. The Pavia authorities expanded the criminal case against those involved, who now face charges of complicity in homicide and failure to provide assistance, after surveillance cameras confirmed that the altercation between the two groups lasted nearly ten minutes before the fatal attack. The weapon used has not yet been recovered by the police.