The long and complex technical investigations of the Ris carabinieri ordered by the Patti Prosecutor’s Office, led by the acting prosecutor Andrea Apollonio, on the Montagnareale massacre which last January cost the lives of three hunters: Giuseppe and Devis Pino, brothers from San Pier Niceto, and Antonio Gatani who, probably due to a tragic accident, allegedly fired at each other, have concluded.
Legitimate defense excluded for the only suspect
Agostino Segreto, 45 years old, the only survivor, was entered in the register of suspects on charges of murder. From investigations and medical-legal consultations it emerged that he shot Devis, the youngest of the victims, at point blank range and at close range, and then fled. A circumstance which, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, excludes the possibility of legitimate defence.
Heard immediately as a witness (the investigators had traced back to him thanks to Galati’s family members who said they had seen him with his father that tragic morning) he first made half-admissions, then remained silent. According to the investigators’ reconstructions, the 82-year-old Gatani would have been the first to shoot, probably mistaken by a noise or the movement of a bush, he would have fired the hunting rifle thinking he was hitting prey. The group of buckshot would have killed Giuseppe Pino instantly, whose weapon was the only one not to have been fired, and grazed his brother. At that point the boy would have hit the elderly man in the chest with his rifle, killing him. Segreto arrived a few moments later and reacted by firing at Devis and then running away.