Qualiano . He admitted to shooting, albeit pointing the gun downward, but that he did so out of fear of being attacked, not out of revenge.

This was the defense given during questioning before Vera Iaselli, the investigating judge of Naples North, by 37-year-old Marco Bevilacqua, who was arrested by the Carabinieri on the night between Saturday and Sunday after shooting four young people outside a bar in Qualiano. Bevilacqua had obtained the weapon shortly beforehand by robbing a security guard , who was threatened with a knife.

The judge ruled to validate the arrest with the issuance of a prison warrant, and the 37-year-old, defended by the lawyer Nunzio Mallardo , therefore remained in the Poggioreale prison in Naples on serious charges: attempted multiple homicide, aggravated robbery, and illegal possession and carrying of a firearm.

During the interrogation, the possible motive was also discussed, namely one or more attacks Bevilacqua had suffered a few days earlier at the hands of the four boys, but the 37-year-old remained vague on this point.

Bevilacqua also explained that on the evening he shot, he had not recognized the four but had fired the shots below where there was a small group of people who he felt threatened by, and only when he was arrested and the names of the victims were given to him did he understand that they were boys he knew but only by sight, and therefore had no dealings with.

The 37-year-old said he robbed the security guard of his gun and then shot him out of fear that something serious might happen to him. Some of his statements appear to be contradicted by the investigative findings.

The Carabinieri of the Giugliano Company, coordinated by the North Naples Prosecutor's Office (Deputy Giuseppe Vitolo), have in fact ascertained that Bevilacqua and the four victims knew each other well and lived in the same place, that the attack on the 37-year-old had indeed occurred, and that Bevilacqua, as emerged from the video surveillance images, fired at chest height, therefore to kill, and not downwards as emerged during the validation hearing.

It will then be necessary to determine whether the 37-year-old was impaired at the time of the incident due to alcohol or drug use: Bevilacqua is in fact a drug addict registered with the Sert , but on the evening of his arrest he was not tested, even though it is likely that he subsequently underwent them in prison.

The motive will be at stake, both during this phase of the investigation and later, when the trial begins. In the coming days, Bevilacqua's lawyer may petition the Naples Review Court for house arrest in a drug addiction facility. "We trust in the serious and professional work of the Prosecutor's Office to understand what actually happened," says attorney Mallardo . "My client is sorry for what he did."