PAVIA - A local councillor for the municipality of Voghera, in the province of Pavia, has been put under house arrest for allegedly shooting and killing a 39-year-old man on Tuesday night. He is under investigation for "excessive self defence."

  Massimo Adriatici, has claimed, however, that he was acting in self defence after being pushed by Youns El Boussetaoui, and that his gun fired accidentally. El Boussetaoui was rushed to hospital, though was dead during the night, after being hit in the upper chest by a shot from Adriatici’s 22 calibre pistol.

  Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League, Adriatici’s party, was quick to defend the accused, while politicians of the Democratic Party (PD) and 5 Star Movement (M5S) called for the League to not get involved, and to leave it to judicial authorities to produce a clear picture of the events of Tuesday night.

  According to Adriatici’s statement to the police, he had been walking past a bar in Voghera’s piazza Meardi and saw El Boussetaoui - who is a repeat offender, charged in the past with threats, resistance arrest, drug dealing, driving drunk and without a license, forgery and possession of weapons - harassing some customers inside. Some witness testimonies have suggested that he was drunk

  “I approached him, and reprimanded him, asking him to leave, and at that point I called the police. Hearing my phone call, he shoved me, making me fall. It was at that point that from the gun already in my hand, a shot was fired,” hitting the victim in the chest.

  The politician alleged that the shot was fired from the gun, for which he had a license, accidentally. The police are currently aiming to reconstruct the incident from the CCTV footage of the square.

  Adriatici, also a prominent lawyer, was recently part of a local campaign to prevent drunkenness, and Tuesday was the first day of a trial in Voghera banning the sale of alcohol after a certain hour.

  Speaking in a video published to his Facebook page, Matteo Salvini described how Adriatici was the “victim of assault,” who “reacted and accidentally a shot went off.” He continued that, “as a last resort, self defence is always legitimate.”

  Before “condemning a respectable person who has been attacked, we must wait for the reconstruction of the facts… There are no citizens with the legitimate possession of weapons who go around shooting.”

  M5S have said that “what happened [on Tuesday] in Voghera is a dramatic and serious event that must be clarified by the investigating authorities. We invite the League to stay in their place. The reconstruction of what happened is not a matter of competence of the League.”

  Enrico Letta, the leader of the Democratic Party, added, “It is a sad day. Investigators and judicial authorities will be the ones to decide. No one will replace them. But one thing we must and can do: stop the private possession of weapons. Only the police and Carabinieri should carry them.”

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