What caused the death of Giuseppe Tucci, the 34-year-old firefighter punched to death by a bouncer from the Rimini Sea Front on 11 June 2023, was the “Rupture of the left vertebral artery caused by a direct traumatic action”. This conclusion was reached by the medical examiner Loredana Buscemi who, on behalf of the investigating judge of the Court of Rimini, analyzed the results of the autopsy on the victim’s body. That night, in the Rimini club, Tucci had had an argument with Klajdi Mjeshtri, the 29-year-old bouncer of Albanian origins who worked illegally in the nightclub. According to what emerged, the two had apparently had an argument over women’s issues with the 34-year-old who was then removed from the club. Tucci, in fact, had arrived with a friend and the fireman allegedly behaved excessively with some dancers and in particular with a girl who later turned out to be the girlfriend of the 28-year-old bouncer. It is not clear why, after a few minutes, the 34-year-old returned to the Frontemare entering not from the main entrance but from the one overlooking the Rimini beach. A second altercation thus broke out between the victim and the security guard with Mjeshtri, a boxing expert, who hit him with five or six punches, some of which hit the fireman in the head. Collapsed to the ground unconscious, Tucci was rescued by 118 personnel and rushed to hospital but, despite all the doctors’ efforts, his injuries were such as to cause brain death. The 34-year-old’s parents, respecting their son’s wishes, then arranged for organ donation.
The position of Mjeshtri, defended by the lawyer Massimiliano Orrù, who had requested summary judgment which entails a discount of one third of the sentence, is therefore worsened. According to the forensic pathologist Professor Mauro Pesaresi, in fact, the death of the firefighter was not caused by the bouncer’s punches but by Tucci’s fall, which violently hit his head on the asphalt. At the same time, the defense expert had observed how the 34-year-old had consumed alcohol that evening and the thesis put forward was that the 34-year-old died after hours of agony following the beating because the hospital treatments had no effect due to the vasodilation caused to alcohol intake.
A hypothesis contested both by the public prosecutor’s consultant who coordinates the investigations, Davide Ercolani, and by the investigating judge: both ruled out that the blood alcohol level found on Tucci, 0.97 g/l, could have favored the subarachnoid hemorrhage that caused him then led to his death. The accusation formulated by the deputy prosecutor who, for Mjeshtri, requested the accusation of aggravated voluntary manslaughter which does not entail a reduction in the sentence, is therefore strengthened. It will therefore be the investigating judge, Vinicio Cantarini, who will decide in a hearing scheduled for September 18th.
