Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

A citizen had lost his job and threatened a massacre

Milan, 5 April 2020 - “I'm desperate, I've been fired”. Thus began the phone call received on Friday morning by a neighborhood officer from the Decentralized Command 8 of the local police. The man, Italian F. R., then went on to declare his intention to commit a massacre while driving a rental car.
The officer, with great professionalism, managed to maintain contact with the 44-year-old to try to calm him down and, at the same time, activated the local police operations center which immediately alerted 6 crews to search for the car.

Continuing the conversation, however, the agent managed to get the switchboard to tell him that the man was still inside his apartment, and therefore to send one of the crews from the Territory Problems Unit who was nearby, and to gain his trust enough to convince him to open the door to the officers who arrived on site.
Speaking with the 44-year-old, the officers managed to reconstruct his story. The only source of support for the family, which includes his wife and a 9-year-old son, was his salary, but that same morning he had been fired and was terrified by the idea of ​​no longer knowing how to buy old goods. need.
The same officer who had received the call then also arrived at the man's house and, together with the officer present, managed to convince the man to be examined at the Psychiatric Emergency Room of the Fatebenefratelli Hospital. Now the family has been put in contact with the social services of the Municipality of Milan and will be followed for all psychological and material support needs.

“It is not only the checks on people and commercial activities that characterize the work of the local police - comments the deputy mayor and councilor for security Anna Scavuzzo -, even more so in a period like this in which fragilities must be accompanied with professionalism and maximum attention . This operation perhaps allowed us to avoid the worst, but certainly to make contact with a family in difficulty who will now also be included in the hub's home shopping circuit. Hoping, in this way, to be able to alleviate, even if only partially, the fearful situation in which they found themselves from one day to the next."