Edoardo Ciardiello, the Prati sniper: addiction, boredom and luxury before the shootings
Raised in Boccea in a wealthy family, Ciardiello had abandoned the restaurant business and lived between the Hilton and a luxury apartment in Prati. According to La Repubblica, he shot "for entertainment".
Who is Edoardo Ciardiello, the "Prati sniper" who shot out of boredom
One must go to Boccea, a commercial district north-west of Rome, to understand something of Edoardo Ciardiello Stazi. Less than five kilometres from that district lies the Prati apartment from whose windows he opened fire on defenceless passers-by. "He did something really stupid, it's unforgivable," a relative of his told La Repubblica, at the end of a sweltering hot day.
His mother's family built a solid financial empire in the automotive and optical sectors during the 1980s. He, born in Capri, had chosen the restaurant business from a young age: first a period in London as a waiter, then a return to Italy at the stove, until he became a partner at the Trattoria della Stampa in Trevi. "But he got fed up and dropped it all three years ago. As happens, often and unfortunately, to those who have too much," a cousin recounted.
Addiction and a life in free fall
Even as a young man Ciardiello had slipped into drug dependency, "always managed one way or another and for which he decided not to have a stable romantic life". A long-standing friend describes him thus: "Over the last five years he has let himself go and that blue-eyed gentleman is fading away day by day".
Despite his financial resources and an "indefinite subscription" to the Hilton hotel — where he spent his days between the swimming pool and the gymnasium — those who knew him portrayed him as "bored, indolent". This portrait is confirmed by the answer he gave to the carabinieri when asked why he had shot at innocent passers-by: "For entertainment". A woman who had known him commented: "It is tragic reality. After so many years, I don't know if he is more of an idiot, an immature person or a reckless one".
Money concerns and the Prati apartment
According to La Repubblica, those close to him attribute part of his malaise to "psychological treatment which he has been undergoing for some time" and to the fact that, fundamentally, "he has never understood what he wants". An acquaintance of his reports that in the recent period Ciardiello's main concern was financial: "My family want to cut off my allowance, how will I get by without my Hilton subscription?".
In January, however, family funds had come through: he had purchased a luxury apartment in Prati, a stone's throw from Vatican City. "New house, new life," he had written in March on his Facebook profile "Vedovo allegro", posting a night-time photograph of St Peter's dome from the communal terrace. The novelty did not assuage his unrest. Every morning or every afternoon he was at the bar opposite for a beer. "Alone, always. Polite, few words. If he were to come back, I would throw him out," said the owner. From the day of the first burst of pellets — last Friday — he has not shown up: "I had stocked Heineken for him and he didn't show up anymore".
An almost unknown face in the neighbourhood
In Prati few really knew him. "You would rarely see him around and between us there was just a 'good morning' or 'good evening'," explained Daniela Gallo, councillor for the Municipality, while some women near the building looked with concern towards Ciardiello's windows. "Knowing he is free does not make us feel safe," they said.
He dedicated his Sundays to his Rome, astride a large-capacity blue motorcycle. From 5 September he had also cultivated a new passion: on that day he had presented himself at the local gun shop and purchased an air rifle. "A very formal person," the gunsmith remembers him. At home he already had three toy gas pistols. Someone raised the hypothesis that he was "one of those obsessed with war video games" and that he had transferred that logic to reality. His closest friends rule out such interpretations and report that now "he is terrified of the trial" and repeats: "I was a great fool". None of them, they add, contradicted him.
Source: la Repubblica