Caterina Ciurleo is dead. The 81-year-old pensioner hit in the back on Thursday afternoon by a stray bullet during a shootout in front of the shopping center in via Don Primo Mazzolari, in the Villaggio Falcone area of eastern Rome, didn’t make it.
Ciurleo died on the morning of Friday 24 May at the Tor Vergata polyclinic where she had been hospitalized in desperate conditions. At the beginning she was conscious and the woman was about to be taken to Umberto I, but the too much blood lost worsened the clinical picture and the change of gear. The double operation she underwent after the consequences of the lung punctured by the bullet and the induction of pharmacological treatment to stabilize her were not enough. In the early hours of today a further deterioration, the desperate attempt to save her life and therefore her death.
How Caterina Ciurleo died
Caterina Ciurleo, originally from Reggio Calabria and who moved to Rome years ago, was in the Smart car of a 63-year-old friend, who remained unharmed. They were heading towards Via della Riserva Nuova when, near Via Don Primo Mazzolari, one of the five gunshots fired by the occupants of a car against another car reached the rear door of the Smart. The shot went through her back and pierced her lung.
Five shell casings found
Ciurleo was there by chance, she had gone out with her friend. She lived in Torre Maura. That stray bullet fired from a moving car, perhaps aimed at another car, took her life. Now the police are investigating to reconstruct the ambush that ended in tragedy, with an innocent victim, and to trace as quickly as possible the two suspicious cars that were seen there, a dark Golf and a red Fiat 500. At the end of the first investigations carried out yesterday, five shell casings were recovered. All 380 caliber. They would all have been fired from a single weapon.
The investigations
The shell casings recovered by the police were right in front of the shopping center. Further confirmation that those who shared did so without fear, at around 6pm, and in a crowded area. One of the busiest areas of the eastern Rome quadrant, a commercial area and in fact one of the bullets hit a passing car and killed the 81-year-old pensioner.
According to initial investigative findings, the shots came from the Golf. However, there is still no official information on this point that the cameras acquired and being examined by those investigating could provide.
The torchlight procession
In the meantime there is anger in the neighborhood, as the president of the VI municipality Nicola Franco underlines in a note: “In giving our solidarity to the victim’s family, together with Don Antonio Coluccia we have decided to give an immediate response to what happened. We will be present in the form of a demonstration to reiterate the need to increase security measures for our territories”.
“Municipality VI is one of the largest in Roma and with the highest crime rate. We need resources and security. If necessary, even the army. We are meeting the citizens this evening at 7.30 pm in via della Riserva Nuova, corner via Prenestina, as a sign of solidarity and to strongly request greater attention to our neighborhoods”, said Franco.
