We knew him by sight, a guy with a hundred gold necklaces around his neck and a long beard who doesn't go unnoticed. He pointed the gun at my brother's head and killed him for no reason. I chased him, and he threw a bottle at my sister-in-law, Desirée, Paolo's girlfriend. I chased him and tried to throw another. Then, from a distance, he pointed the gun at me too, and I ran towards the bar.
Sofia Taormina, sister of Paolo, the 21-year-old killed on Saturday night in Palermo in front of his family's pub, said he had gone out to break up a fight.
Sofia's gaze is lost in space. There are many silences, few words she manages to utter through tears, surrounded by her closest friends: "Paolo was a hard worker, a sincere boy, devoted to his family. He was too sick of me, in the sense that he was protective of me, and we loved each other to death."
"Paolo was with his parents, brother, and sister. At a certain point, nine people arrived," the cousin of the victim's father recounted. "All random people. Paolo came out of the place to tell them to calm down, because they were working there. 'Guys, calm down, we just have to have fun,' the victim reportedly said. 'Okay,' that gentleman replied," referring to Gaetano Maranzano, the young man arrested for the murder.
Maranzano, 28, from the Zen neighborhood, a suburban neighborhood with a high crime rate, confessed to the murder . On TikTok, he posted audio clips from Salvatore Riina films and gun-shaped necklaces. "Paolo Taormina harassed my partner on social media," he told investigators, admitting to firing a gunshot at the 21-year-old.
The 28-year-old wasn't alone. He was with several friends from Zen, spending the evening near a pub near the Taormina family's O Scrusciu pub. After the brawl and the gunshot, several young people got on scooters and fled , according to video surveillance footage acquired and analyzed by the Carabinieri in recent hours. Searches and checks are still underway in the Zen neighborhood today to identify those who were with Maranzano on the night of the murder. Several young people have been taken to the police station for questioning.
(Unioneonline)
