A policeman who shot an Italian soccer fan dead in November and sparked the worst soccer riots in years is facing murder charges, lawyers said Friday.
Agent Luigi Spaccatorella, 35, has denied shooting to kill Rome DJ and Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri, 26, after a scuffle between two small groups of Lazio and Juventus fans at a Tuscan service station on November 11.
But a preliminary investigation into the death has now been concluded and prosecutors will seek to indict Spaccatorella on murder charges, lawyers said.
In his final questioning session, the agent confirmed his claim that the shot that killed Sandri went off accidentally as he was running to get a better view of the incident on the other side of the motorway.
A lawyer acting for Sandri's family said the officer's claim contradicted testimony from two eye witnesses who said they saw Spaccatorella firing at head height with both hands on his gun.
Sandri's death sparked widespread riots and led to the suspension of Italian soccer play for a day.
Spaccatorella apparently acted in the belief that Sandri and his friends were speeding off after robbing the petrol station - when in fact they were driving away after a scuffle with the rival fans.
Police have speculated that Spaccatorella may have been aiming at the car's tyres.
''But if he was doing so he was taking an enormous risk,'' Arezzo Police Chief Vincenzo Giacobbe said.
Giacobbe said a police-issue bullet was found in the body of Sandri, a rising Rome DJ who was travelling to see Lazio play Inter in Milan.
Sandri and three companions had just jumped back into their car after a scuffle with Juventus fans and were heading out of the service station when the bullet entered the rear-side window of the vehicle and hit Sandri in the neck.
On the evening of Sandri's death, some 40 policemen were injured in a night of street violence around Rome's Olympic Stadium.
The most seriously injured was a police officer hit by a metal bar in an assault on a police station near the stadium.
Several right-wing hooligans, mostly Lazio fans, were arrested earlier this week for orchestrating the riots in which an estimated 500 fans attacked three police stations and the headquarters of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).
Damage to various buildings and vehicles was said to be ''incalculable''.
Incidents also took place in Bergamo, Milan and other Italian cities.
Experts said hooligans had been regrouping after being curbed and therefore seized on Sandri's death to renew their assault on the police.
