Murder of Gabriele Sandri

  1. Home
  2. Wiki
Murder of Gabriele Sandri
The memorial to Gabriele Sandri at the site of the shooting.
LocationA1, Autogrill Badia al Pino, Civitella in Val di Chiana
Date11 November 2007
Attack type
Shooting
WeaponPistol
Deaths1
VictimGabriele Sandri
PerpetratorLuigi Spaccarotella
MotiveImpulsive behaviour

The murder of Gabriele Sandri is a crime that occurred on 11 November 2007 in Italy, in which the police officer Luigi Spaccarotella fired a gunshot on the A1 motorway near the Autogrill at Badia al Pino Est service station located in Civitella in Val di Chiana (Arezzo), taking the life of a 26 year old disc jockey from Rome following some scuffles between football fans.[1] What followed were nationwide scenes of violence.[2]

Background

[edit]
Graffiti in Rome that pays homage to Gabriele Sandri.

Born in Rome on 23 September 1981, 26-year-old, Gabriele Sandri, nicknamed "Gabbo", was a well-known disc jockey in the capital. He was a fan of the SS Lazio football team and his parents were owners of a clothing shop in the Balduina area.[3]

Shooting

[edit]

On the morning of 11 November 2007, Sandri and four other friends were driving on the Autostrada A1, heading towards Milan to watch the football match between Inter Milan and SS Lazio scheduled for 3:00 pm at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium in San Siro. The five, on board a Renault Mégane, stopped at the Badia al Pino service station near Civitella in Val di Chiana (Arezzo) to wait for the arrival of other friends, also coming from Rome in a Renault Clio. Around 9:00 am, the Lazio fans came into contact with some Juventus supporters and a fight broke out between the two groups.[4]

The scuffles attracted the attention of a patrol of the Highway Police (Polizia Stradale) who were on the opposite side of the road and who, having turned on the siren, moved to the other side of the road. While the group of Sandri's friends got back into the car and were about to leave, the officer Luigi Spaccarotella - according to his testimony, convinced that the four were fleeing following a robbery - got out of the service car, took aim and from a distance of about fifty metres fired two gunshots.[5]

The second bullet passed through the fence dividing the carriageways and hit the Mégane, which in the meantime had started moving, hitting Sandri in the neck, who was sleeping in the middle of the back seat.[4] The travelling companions immediately realised Gabriele's serious condition and therefore stopped at the next service station in Reggello, 30 km further on, to alert both the police and the emergency services.[4] The ambulance arrived on the scene but the young man was already dead.[4]

Reactions and consequences

[edit]

The news spread and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) decided to postpone the match between Inter and Lazio: for the other matches, the start was ordered with a 10 minute delay.[6] For the following weekend, the FIGC ordered the suspension of serie B and serie C. Several stadiums were the scene of incidents, caused by fans protesting against the police. In Bergamo, the match between Atalanta and Milan was suspended after a few minutes due to the excesses of the Orobic supporters.[7] Other violent reactions occurred in Parma and Taranto.[6] In Lavello, Potenza, the Brindisi fans were the protagonists of some episodes of violence against the police and six Apulian fans were arrested,[8] while Milan and Rome were invaded by processions of fans who attacked the barracks and the police.[6] For reasons of public safety, the match between AS Roma and Cagliarischeduled for 20:30 in the capital was also postponed.[9] The worst of the violence was reported in Rome.[10] Windows were smashed and vehicles were set on fire.[11]

As an immediate measure, the FIGC expressed the idea of banning away matches considered to be the most dangerous and of making recognition mandatory at the entrance to stadiums.[12] The fan card (Tessera del tifoso) was then promoted in 2008,[13]  although in the following years the problem of violence in stadiums and between fans was never completely resolved.[14]

Statuto [it] dedicated the song È già domenica to Sandri, released on the album of the same name [it] in 2010.[15]

Funeral

[edit]

Sandri's funeral was held on 14 November 2007, in the Church of San Pio X in Balduina.[16] Thousands of people attended the ceremony, including the entire Lazio team, the captain of the Associazione Sportiva Roma, Francesco Totti and the coach Luciano Spalletti.[17]  As the coffin was being carried out, some of those present chanted slogans against the police and scarves from other teams were left on the coffin.[18]

[edit]

In July 2009, Spaccarotella was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment for manslaughter with conscious guilt:[19] the sentence was then reformed on appeal.[20] In December 2010 and changed to voluntary homicide, re-evaluating it to eventual intent, and increasing the sentence to 9 years and 5 months of imprisonment.[21]

In 2012, the Supreme Court of Cassation, to which Spaccarotella's defense had appealed, reaffirmed the second-instance verdict of the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Florence, confirming the conviction for voluntary homicide.[5] Ten years after the crime, in the autumn of 2017, he was granted semi-liberty, to be able to carry out voluntary work.[22]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Italian police kill football fan". BBC News. 2007-11-11. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  2. ^ "Italy fans rampage after killing". BBC News. 2007-11-12. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  3. ^ Fiori, Stefano (23 September 2015). "La Lazio ricorda Gabriele Sandri". roma.repubblica.it.
  4. ^ a b c d "Tragedia sull'A1, Italia sotto choc per il tifoso ucciso da un agente". 11 November 2007.
  5. ^ a b "Omicidio Sandri, la Cassazione:"Spaccarotella consapevole dei rischi"". 1 August 2012.
  6. ^ a b c "Il campionato non si ferma, esplode la rabbia negli stadi". 11 November 2007.
  7. ^ "Bergamo, ultrà scatenati". 11 November 2007.
  8. ^ "Lavello (Pz), Arrestati sei ultras del Brindisi 1912".
  9. ^ "RINVIATA ROMA-CAGLIARI". 11 November 2007.
  10. ^ "Italian soccer fans run riot - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. 2007-11-13. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  11. ^ Mirror.co.uk (2007-11-12). "Riot after cop kills Lazio fan". The Mirror. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  12. ^ Bianchi, Fulvio (15 November 2007). "Trasferte vietate per quindici tifoserie".
  13. ^ Galdi, Maurizio (18 September 2009). "TESSERA DEL TIFOSO".
  14. ^ "Aumenta la violenza negli stadi italiani. E in curva comanda l'estrema destra". 19 December 2015.
  15. ^ "È già domenica".
  16. ^ "Gabriele, il giorno dell'addio". 14 November 2007.
  17. ^ "Roma, ai funerali di "Gabbo" Sandri folla e corteo". 14 November 2007.
  18. ^ "I funerali di Gabriele Sandri". 14 November 2007.
  19. ^ "Sandri, ecco la sentenza". 14 July 2009.
  20. ^ "Sandri, sei anni all'agente: "Omicidio colposo"". 15 July 2009.
  21. ^ "Sandri, fu omicidio volontario". 1 December 2010.
  22. ^ "Il poliziotto Spaccarotella in semilibertà: "È tornato anche ad Arezzo"". 5 November 2017.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Filippo Grassia (2010). Inter. Il calcio siamo noi. Sperling & Kupfer. p. 389. ISBN 9788820049676.
  • Maurizio Martucci (2008). 11 novembre 2007. L'uccisione di Gabriele Sandri una giornata buia della Repubblica. Sovera Edizioni. p. 160. ISBN 9788881247875.

See also

[edit]