Manuel Bortuzzo, 20 years old, has an irreversible spinal injury. Police suspect shooters are from the Roman mafia
Manuel Bortuzzo, 20 years old, was considered one of the great promises of Italian swimming. The good results in the middle distance races showed that he had a promising future, but it all ended in the early hours of last Saturday.
The athlete was shot on a street in a Rome suburb by two men on a motorcycle who opened fire on him. It was a crime in the style of the Camorra, the Italian mafia, which reportedly occurred after a dispute in a bar near the crime scene.
Authorities confirm that Manuel was with his girlfriend and friends at the bar, but was not involved in any fight. He would have been shot by mistake. The shooters wanted to hit someone else.
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Doctors treating Manuel Bortuzzo confirmed the worst-case scenario on Tuesday. The swimmer suffered a spinal cord injury and is unable to move his legs. "The possibility of regaining movement in his legs is not possible with current medical knowledge," said Alberto Delitala, director of the Neuroscience department at San Camillo Hospital in Rome, where Manuel was treated.
The Italian swimming federation said the athlete was out of danger. But only “a miracle” will free him from relying on a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has promised that everything will be done to find the perpetrators of the shooting.
