The honor of Knight of Merit of the Republic for the Carabinieri Marshal Michele Manca and the Medal of Civil Valor for Lieutenant Francesco Ruggiu, who passed away a few weeks ago . This is the proposal that the Municipality of Santa Giusta, through the figure of the mayor Andrea Casu, has put forward to the prefect of Oristano Salvatore Angieri, "for the great courage and civic sense demonstrated on the occasion of the attempted robbery of February 2, 2024 in the branch of the Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Arborea present in Santa Giusta in via Giovanni XXIII".
That day two criminals entered the branch , threatening the staff with a gun that apparently looked like a working weapon. Among the customers in line was Francesco Ruggiu who, given the situation, decided with great courage and civic sense to react by trying to immobilize one of the criminals . In a very short time the Carabinieri Marshal Michele Manca, at the time Commander of the Santa Giusta station, arrived on the scene and put an end to the fight between Ruggiu and the criminal, immobilizing him and disarming him.
"Thanks to the great courage shown by Ruggiu and Manca, the attempted robbery was promptly foiled," the document states, " thus avoiding serious consequences that could have occurred if the same attempt had succeeded . Thanks also to the timely and accurate investigative activity carried out by Marshal Manca, it was possible to bring to justice the second criminal, who in the meantime, seeing the bad situation, had managed to escape from the branch."
