[6] Five members of the MSI were fired upon with automatic weapons by a group of five or six assailants while they were leaving the local party headquarters in via Acca Larenzia to distribute pamphlets.
Franco Bigonzetti and Francesco Ciavatta were killed, while Vincenzo Segneri, although wounded, managed to return to the party headquarters with Maurizio Lupini and Giuseppe D'Audino, both of whom were unharmed.
Nineteen-year-old Stefano Recchioni was fatally injured by a stray bullet and several others, including Youth Front national secretary Gianfranco Fini, were wounded by tear gas canisters.
[8] The killings further polarised Italian politics during the Years of Lead and led to a fracture within the neo-fascist movement, with more radical militants blaming the party leadership for its failure to denounce the police for Recchioni's death and choosing to join emerging extremist groups like the far-right Armed Revolutionary Nuclei.
Riots broke out during commemorations of the victims on 10 January 1979, with seventeen-year-old Alberto Giaquinto being fatally injured by police officer Alessio Speranza, who was convicted after four trials and ten years of negligent excess of self-defence.
[6][19] Marco Vizzardelli, a theatre-goer who was quickly identified by DIGOS for shouting "Long live anti-fascist Italy!"