The two witnesses - Italians of Moroccan origin - who told investigators that they had seen a man on a bicycle on the evening of Sharon Verzeni's murder in Terno d'Isola (Bergamo) had gone out to train on the night between July 29 and 30 and then recognised Moussa Sangare, the 31-year-old - Italian with origins in Mali - who, taken to the Carabinieri headquarters and questioned, confessed to the murder yesterday at dawn .
The two witnesses, aged 25 and 23 , the first a clerk in a clothing store and the other a driver for a department store, play kickboxing and football respectively and that evening they had gone out, they explained in an interview with Repubblica, very late as usual.
"It was more or less midnight - they recalled -, we were in Chignolo near the pharmacy and in front of the cemetery where we stopped to do some push-ups. At that point two foreigners passed by on bicycles, then a third. He made an impression on us, because he was a bit strange. He had a bandana on his head and a hat, a backpack and glasses. He stared at us for a long time and then made a face. We had never seen him before. We told them about that boy when we were called to the barracks ."
What they reported was one of the clues that allowed the Carabinieri to reach Sangare.
"Now - the two boys added after learning of the 31-year-old's arrest - we feel proud to have been useful in identifying the murderer."
Again: "We - they added - had Italian citizenship as kids, at fifteen. We want to make people think that if the killer is of foreign origins, we are too. Maybe without our testimony he would be free. We think we have done our duty".
The two now have only one regret, given that they were not near the site of the attack that night: "We couldn't do anything for Sharon. If we had been closer, perhaps we could have saved her. Maybe the killer saw an easy prey, like those two kids he wanted to attack. When he came across us, however, he just looked at us badly and went on."
(Online Union)
