He opened the gas meter connection with pliers, then closed every window and walked away, without turning towards the building in Piazza Borgo Dora 42. Which, at 9am on Monday morning, risked exploding, as emerged from the investigations of the firefighters and from advice requested by the public prosecutor Patrizia Gambardella: for this reason a 57-year-old tailor from Turin with a past in the Armani and Gucci ateliers ended up in handcuffs. Yesterday judge Giovanna Di Maria validated the arrest for the crime of massacre because, according to the prosecution, she “wanted to kill”. And this would also be demonstrated by a shocking phrase, whispered to the policemen who tracked him down. They told him that he could harm innocent people and he replied: “We all have to die anyway”.
The events, which occurred a stone’s throw from the Sermig and the Holden School: it was 8.30 on Monday when the 57-year-old’s neighbors started to smell a strong smell of gas. Someone felt ill, others immediately called the firefighters, who found a presence of 14% methane gas inside the apartment on the first floor. For this reason they first evacuated the inhabitants of Piazza Borgo Dora 42, then those of numbers 38 and 40. Then they entered the accommodation and found an electric stove on, the fridge open and the gas connection unscrewed, with methane which had now filled the rooms: «There were ideal conditions to generate an explosion with potentially lethal effects» we read in the advice of the chemist Fabrizio Seganti, called by the prosecutor Gambardella to analyze the danger faced by the residents.
At that point the search for the person responsible began. The patrol police found him almost 3 kilometers away, in a field a stone’s throw from the Palace of Justice: «The administrator and the stairmaster are scoundrels – he shouted at the officers – I decided to take justice into my own hands with the gas”. Next to her she had a sort of ax (a “tomahawk”), a cutter and the parrot pliers used to open the valve. Yesterday, at the hearing to validate the arrest, the tailor was assisted by the lawyer Tiziana Porcu: «I was in the grip of anger, it was an instinctive gesture – he explained to the judge and prosecutor – I wanted to take justice into my own hands against the administrator and the head of the stairs. But I didn’t want to kill my neighbors, I thought they were all at work at that time.” What is also striking is how, behind such a story, there is a man with a “normal” past: «I was responsible for quality and production for Giorgio Armani, then I worked at Gucci. Until my mother got cancer and I had to leave everything about her to take care of her. Now she’s passed away and I can’t get hold of the inheritance and my money: she’s been going like this for 10 years ».
According to the administrator, however, the tailor attacked him and is in arrears with the condominium. In fact, there is an injunction against the 57-year-old, who is now in prison on charges of massacre. Because, according to the law, it is such an immediate and dangerous crime that an attempt is enough to contest it.
