The words of parish priest Don Giulio Madeddu resound through a stunned church in Santo Stefano di Quartu: "There are moments," says the priest, "when even faith cannot keep the tears away , and even a priest lacks the words to explain what happened."

The many people sitting in the pews in front listen in a silence broken only by the sound of fans, gathered to pay their last respects to Andrea Pintus, the forty-two-year-old shot dead by his brother Alessandro at dawn on Thursday in Quartu . Before the coffin covered with a cushion of roses and white gerberas, the young man's mother, Bernardetta, is a mask of grief. She sits motionless, with relatives at her side trying to comfort her. She isn't moving, she's feeling ill; they're giving her water. His father, however, was unable to come to this funeral. He's in too much pain and has stayed home.

contentid/cb63a7d2-80cf-4011-b2f9-f7d2da8ca377
contentid/cb63a7d2-80cf-4011-b2f9-f7d2da8ca377

"In recent days," the priest continues, "a tragedy has struck many people. A brother leaves us, a woman is fighting for her life, and a man's existence is marked by a grave responsibility."

At the end of the ceremony, the hunter friends accompany the coffin to the churchyard: all dressed in green, they release green balloons into the sky. The young man's mother throws herself onto the coffin and keeps repeating, "How can I do this? My son, my son, there is no consolation."

From afar, another relative shouts: “He died for nothing, he died for nothing.”

© Riproduzione riservata