Palermo, il delitto al mercato del Capo: ucciso per uno schiaffo al padre del killer

While Palermo is still asleep, someone is already arguing at the Capo. Voices, shoving, insults. Two men are arguing relentlessly. And then, suddenly, silence. Just moments before a Carabinieri patrol arrives, dispatched from headquarters after an anonymous call. It's seven o'clock, and there are very few people on Via Porta Carini. Greengrocer Andrea Cusimano, one of those who had argued heatedly (but no one knows this yet), is opening his stall, the first in the market. He has time to unpack a few crates of vegetables. All seems calm, and the patrol leaves. But 45 minutes later, a robust young man arrives, holding a gun. Cusimano knows him; he's the son of the man he confronted earlier, with a slap, a witness will say. It's at that moment that Cusimano realizes he's become the predestined victim. And so he tries to escape through the stalls. It's a few minutes to eight. Andrea Cusimano, a 30-year-old, runs. He has no escape. One, two, three gunshots knock him to the ground. The hitman approaches, perhaps even intending to deliver the final blow with his .38 Lebel, a French-made pistol. What offense has that greengrocer ever committed? What's certain is that the execution of a death sentence decided in the space of a few minutes must be exemplary. It matters little that several people are already around at that moment: shopkeepers, tourists. There's also a marshal and a corporal from the Carabinieri Investigative Unit, both in plain clothes. A chase begins among the stalls: the killer tries to get rid of the gun, throwing it into a warehouse. Then, he gets into a black Smart car driven by an accomplice, who's waiting on Via Volturno. The Carabinieri officer pulls him out by force. The car flees, but the killer is in handcuffs. He is a 23-year-old man, Calogero Piero Lo Presti, his father is Giovanni. In 2002, he too ended up in prison on charges of killing a relative, Salvatore Altieri, at the height of a dramatic argument. In reality, a week passed before Lo Cascio was identified, because the family had chosen to sacrifice the victim's son in order to save the real killer. And this is no coincidence. Lo Presti is a weighty surname in the Cosa Nostra geography. A fact that immediately caught the attention of the Carabinieri. Lo Presti junior is the nephew of boss Calogero Lo Presti, one of the Cosa Nostra leaders who rule Porta Nuova, but also the second cousin of Tommaso Lo Presti, another influential godfather. (Repubblica)