MILAN – Filippo Di Terlizzi, son of Cecilia De Astis who was fatally struck by a stolen car driven by four minors in Milan’s Via Saponaro on Monday, has forcefully rejected any characterization of his mother’s death as mere misfortune. “This tragedy cannot be justified as bad luck,” Di Terlizzi stated plainly to Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera, Repubblica, and La Stampa.
“This should not have happened, it should never have happened,” he continued, describing the family’s state as “living a nightmare.” He emphasized his comments were not a “witch hunt,” but a necessary conversation about public safety: “We cannot stay in this situation. It seems to me there is little security.”
Di Terlizzi called the incident “a murder that should not exist,” clarifying he did not wish to unduly criticize Mayor Giuseppe Sala’s administration but stressed, “I cannot think this should be repeated.” He asserted, “Those children raised in delinquency should not have been there.”
The four minors had stolen the vehicle and taken it for a drive, causing a tragedy impacting both De Astis’s family and their own. The mother of one minor, speaking outside the local police station on Via Pietro Custodi where her son was being questioned, expressed profound anguish: “I’ve been crying since dawn for the lady and for my son. What can I say? They are not adults, they are children.”
She revealed the boys returned home late on Sunday and only afterward “told us about this tragedy, the accident, what happened.” She concluded, despairingly, “If we had seen them in the car, we would have stopped them.”
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