Two victims, two women. Martina Scialdonekilled with a gunshot not far from a restaurant by her ex-partner, Constantine Bonaiuti, right where the 34-year-old lawyer had agreed to meet him for a clarifying meeting. Seven days later in the capital, another quarrel between former comrades risked turning into yet another feminicide. The ex-wife of a 38-year-old was the victim, to whom the man fired a gunshot at point-blank range, missing her, with the bullet sticking against the window of a restaurant. The attempted murder in northern Rome, exactly seven days after the assassination of Martina, killed in front of her brother in via Amelia.
He shoots his ex-wife after an argument
The facts occurred on the night of 20 January. Shortly after 2:00 a call from a girl on 112 arrived asking for help from via Riano in the Ponte Milvio club area. Police patrols reached the woman who was there with her brother-in-law in a few moments. The two told the policemen of the flying section and of the Ponte Milvio, Primavalle and Villa Glori police stations that, shortly before her, leaving one of the premises in via Flaminia, they found her ex-husband together with another boy.
From fight to shooting
A dispute ensued from the meeting, culminating in which the ex-spouse, a 38-year-old of Albanian origins, allegedly took a pistol and fired a shot at the ex-wife and brother-in-law’s address. The bullet would have narrowly missed the two, hitting a window of a room where, at that moment, there was no one. The 38-year-old, immediately after shooting, would have fled with his friend aboard the sedan from which he had also taken the weapon.
PODCAST: story of a feminicide, the case of Martina Scialdone
Shot against the glass of a restaurant
In response to what was said, the agents found, at a height of just over one and a half meters from the ground, a hole in the glass of a restaurant. With the data and testimonies collected on the spot, the police officers, with the help of the operations room of the Rome police station, began the investigation and search for the suspects.
Hidden inside the closet in Selva Candida
The boy who accompanied the 38-year-old was found on the street in the Primavalle district. The search for the shooter was more articulated: the policemen from the flying section arrived at an apartment in Selva Candida near which the reported car was also parked; having the certainty that the man, despite not answering the calls, was in that house, with the help of the firefighters, they entered through a window finding the 38-year-old in a closet hidden among his clothes.
The woman already abused
The searches have not – at the moment – allowed us to find the gun. The scientific police intervened on the sites for technical surveys and various seizures were made, including the German sedan. The victim formalized the complaint for the incident in the offices of the Ponte Milvio district. It was ascertained that, in April 2021, the 38-year-old had been arrested for mistreatment in the family against the woman and for damaging her brother-in-law’s car.
Attempted murder at Ponte Milvio
The 38-year-old, at the end of the investigations, was subjected to arrest as a suspect of a crime by the judicial police operating because he was seriously suspected of the crime of attempted murder. The same PG immediately informed the magistrate of the anti-violence pool of the Rome prosecutor’s office. The suspect was transferred to prison. The local prosecutor asked the judge for preliminary investigations of the court of Rome to validate the pre-precautionary measure adopted. The man who was in the company of the 38-year-old was also investigated in a state of freedom for aiding and abetting.
An attempted femicide, which took place just 7 days after the murder of Martina Scialdone, killed at the age of only 34 from what was once her love.
95 women killed in 2022
95 women have been killed at the hands of men in different ways and circumstances in the course of 2022. This is the data updated to November 7 contained in the report of the Central Directorate of Criminal Police entitled ‘Prejudice and violence against women’ presented at Rome in the presence of Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, the police chief, Lamberto Gianni, the central director of the criminal police Vittorio Rizzi and the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri.
Femicides in 2022
Going into the details of the Report, it emerges that from January to September 2022, at least on the basis of the data collected, the so-called feminicides decreased by 9 percent. Out of 221 homicides, 82 had women victims, 71 of whom were killed in the family-affective sphere; of these, 42 met their death at the hands of their partner-ex partner. Looking back, in the two-year period 2020-2021, it is noted that the number of voluntary homicides committed in 2021 shows an increase of 6% compared to the previous year, while the figure for female victims remains stable.
Women killed in the family environment
Women killed in the family-affective environment, which in 2021 increased by 1% compared to the previous period, found death at the hands of their partner or ex-partner in 68% of cases. In the same period, crimes committed in the family/affective sphere also show a decrease (-15%), going from 114 to 97; similarly the female victims, from 77 in the period 1 January – 30 September 2021, drop to 71 in the same period of the current year (-8%).
Victims of partners and exes
A more marked decrease (-19%) was recorded for women victims of partners or former partners, who went from 52 to 42. Both in the two-year period 2020/2021 and in the period January-September 2021, women killed in the family /affectionate are often victims of partners or former partners, with percentages that fluctuate by a few units around 70%.
