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Italian prosecutor releases execution video in attempt to find killer

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Video shows man shoot another man twice outside Naples store during day
  • Passers-by appear unfazed by shooting in neighborhood where organized crime is strong
  • "Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly in Naples," police spokesman says
  • Italy's Green Party offers reward for information on shooter and accomplice
RELATED TOPICS
  • Organized Crime
  • Naples

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Seeking to identify the man who shot dead another man outside a store in Naples, Italy, in the spring, an anti-mafia prosecutor distributed on Thursday a video showing the execution.

The surveillance-camera video, shot May 11, shows a man wearing a baseball cap, dark jersey, blue jeans and running shoes entering a store, walking to the back and looking around, then walking out. As he exits, he pulls a pistol from his right front pants pocket and shoots a man standing outside the store.

As the victim buckles to his knees and then sprawls headlong on the pavement, the killer approaches him from behind and squeezes off a second round into the back of his head, turns and strides unhurriedly out of camera view.

Passers-by appear unfazed. One woman tries to lift the victim's head in an apparent attempt to see whether she knows him; a man steps over the body.

"Indeed, it is ugly to see people behaving as if that was not a dead body and going on their daily routine," a police spokesman said. "Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly in Naples and in that neighborhood."

He said fear led people to behave that way.

The spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said anti-mafia prosecutor Sergio Amato released the video to the media in hopes that someone would recognize the killer and his apparent accomplice: a man who had been standing next to the victim and walked off just before the shooting.

Police said no motive has been determined for the killing, which took place in the poor neighborhood of Rione Sanita, where Camorra -- the name for organized crime in Naples -- is strong.

The victim was a bank robber, the spokesman said.

Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities Maria Rosaria Carfagna called the video "tragic."

"It shows us, finally, without any censorship, a disgusting side of the Camorra, which along with all the rest of its disgusting faces, has forced a city, a region, a territory, to be ashamed of itself and to hide its real face.

"A street homicide, in broad daylight, in the center of a great European city cannot be considered normal and even less be accepted by the conscience of all Italians as if it were a TV show," she said.

"The police forces are waging a battle against organized crime, as the number of arrests shows us. The state is there and in strong force. But, and I speak here as someone from the Campania region, Naples and all of Campania need not only a strong political force but the courage of all its citizens."

Roberto Saviano, author of the book "Gomorrah," which details the Camorra, called the video "shocking."

"What is shocking about this video is the absolute serenity of the people around the victim," he told the daily newspaper La Repubblica.

Saviano, who has lived under police protection since shortly after his book was published in 2006, added, "Unfortunately, though, when a city is at war, its citizens undergo and live almost with normal indifference."

Italy's Green Party is offering 2,000 euros ($2,963) to whoever helps investigators identify the suspects.

"The Camorra pays them to keep quiet; we pay them to speak," said Francesco Emilio Borelli, head of the Green Party in the Campania region.

The police spokesman said Camorra has been blamed for about 60 killings this year in Naples and its surrounding county.