Trajectory, wound and gunpowder: all the clues that would frame Pozzolo

“The accidental firing action is presumably due to incorrect handling of the revolver, by Emanuele Pozzolo. At the time the shot was fired, the revolver was held and was between three and five centimeters from the table.” This is what he writes in the ballistic expertise, the technical consultant of the Biella prosecutor’s office, Raffaella Sorropago. Therefore, according to the accusation, the person who detonated the shot that wounded Luca Campana on New Year’s Eve in the Rosazza pro loco headquarters was the (suspended) deputy of Fratelli d’Italia, who is currently the only one investigated for the accident.

Campana is Pablito’s son-in-law Morello, the escort leader of the undersecretary of justice Andrea Delmastro. Morello was next to Pozzolo at the time of the shot. Delmastro, present at the party, was not there at the time of the explosion (1.30 am). He was outside smoking, after loading the car.

According to the consultant appointed by the prosecutor Teresa Angela Camelio, the shot would have been fired “probably during the operations of opening the cylinder and/or unloading the weapon, in the presence of Morello, positioned next to Pozzolo, on the left side, and of Campana, positioned to his left, but on the short side of the table”. “The shot exploded accidentally”, specifies Sorropago, confirming the theory of the accident.

The revolver, a “perfectly functional” North American Arms LR22, was regularly held by Pozzolo, but that evening the parliamentarian, a friend of Delmastro, could not have taken it out of the house, because it is a collector’s weapon. Not only that, the prosecutor’s consultant discovered that there were expansive “Hollow point” cartridges in the weapon. Cartridges not permitted, and which Pozzolo could not have loaded into such a weapon, again according to the prosecutor’s theory.

Sorropago’s analysis starts from wound of Campana, drawn from a 22 caliber bullet. And from the analysis of the table seized in one of the rooms of the Rosazza tourist office: 200 centimeters long by 70 and 78 high, leaning against a wall.

In front of the table, close to each other, facing the wall, were Pozzolo and Morello, according to the report. Campana was close to Morello, but against the short side of the furniture. However, all three were very close. And all three would have been intent on observing Pozzolo’s gun, curious.

“But is it real or fake? I don’t believe she’s real, she doesn’t have the cartridges,” Campana, who is the offended party in this criminal case, assisted by the lawyer Marco Romanello, would have said at a certain point. Pozzolo, defended by the lawyer Andrea Corsaro, would then open the revolver to show the cartridges. During the disassembly phase of the weapon, the shot would have been fired. This, obviously, according to the accusatory theory. Pozzolo has always reiterated: “I wasn’t the one who shot.”

Campana’s wound, corresponding to the entry wound, is 78 centimeters from the ground: the same distance as the table from the floor. “Campana was positioned on the short side of the table, with his body rotated, to observe what was happening in the center of the table”, specifies Sorropago, who underlines: “The progress of the bullet is almost parallel to the walking surface, with the entry hole on the leg at the same height as the intermediate impact point on the table”. Everything would therefore return, even with the scratch left imprinted on the wood, almost on the edge of the table, in the point where Campana was.

New Year’s Eve shooting, Delmastro contradicts himself in front of prosecutors: “I was out smoking” and not “200 meters away”

edited by the Repubblica Torino editorial team

February 22, 2024

Pozzolo would have held the gun in his hand, approximately 3-5 centimeters from the surface. The shot fired would have produced a dark halo, which remained on the wood, with a diameter of approximately 10 centimeters, 43 centimeters away from the wall and 84 centimeters from the scratch, 4.5 centimeters long. The shape of the central spot would be indicative for establishing the position of the weapon at the moment of firing, the distance between the gun and the table and the position of the weapon in space.

The scratch, on the other hand, would be a sign “compatible with the trajectory of a bullet that grazed the table with a grazing passage”. The engraving would allow us to understand the trajectory of the bullet and would lead to establishing that “the motion of the bullet in flight was almost parallel to the support surface of the table, therefore the weapon – concludes Sorropago – was positioned at the moment of the shot very close to this ‘last”.

There are other traces of gunpowder, near the positions of Pozzolo and Morello. According to the expert, “they are probably attributable to an innocent pollution produced in the most reliable hypothesis with the transfer of residues to the external edge of the table through the touch of contaminated hands”. Perhaps the hands of Morello and Pozzolo.

According to the consultant, the hypothesis of the accident would be confirmed by the hearings of the witnesses and would not be far-fetched, also because, underlines Sorropago, “the weapon is truly of very small dimensions and is very uncomfortable to handle. “There is considerable difficulty in holding it firmly to carry out any action, including opening the drum for loading or unloading it and herding the dog”, concludes the prosecutor’s expert.