BOLZANO. Four gunshots pierced the silence of the night in the industrial area on Sunday evening, generating fear among residents. It was a police officer who exploded them in the air for intimidating purposes while chasing a thief. The episode occurred around 11pm in via Galilei, where a police car, engaged in a normal patrolling service, intercepted a white van which, at full speed, had entered the wrong way from via Avogadro in an extremely dangerous manoeuvre.
A chase followed with sirens blaring, but the officers, to avoid risks to other vehicles, were unable to come alongside the vehicle. In via Pacinotti, near the Palermo bridge, the van was forced to stop. At that point, the driver and passenger fled on foot in opposite directions. One of the two continued towards the bridge, while the other headed towards Via Pacinotti, passing in front of the Harley Davidson bar, under the astonished gaze of the customers. The officers left the car and chased on foot. Subsequently, it was ascertained that the van, stolen shortly before in via Zuegg, had been found with the keys left under the sun visor. The thieves had taken advantage of this, starting the daring escape.
You shoot him
During the chase on the Palermo bridge, one of the officers, noticing the thief turn around twice and put his hand in his jacket pocket as if to threaten that he was armed, fired four shots into the air with his service pistol to order him to stop. The shots, fired in an isolated and uninhabited area, caused no damage, but were not enough to stop the fugitive, who managed to escape along the embankment. The second criminal also disappeared in the streets of the industrial area.
The investigations
The flying squad and the forensic police are investigating to reconstruct what happened and identify those responsible. Commissioner Paolo Sartori praised the professionalism of the officers, underlining how they managed an extremely dangerous situation, avoiding a possible tragedy. «The crazy behavior of these criminals put the safety of passers-by and the officers themselves at risk. We hope to identify the culprits soon, also in light of the particular ways in which the theft was perpetrated”, concluded Sartori.