Shots fired at Lionel Messi’s wife’s family business and attackers leave threatening note
Two men opened fire on a supermarket owned by the Roccuzzo family in Rosario with a stark warning: “Messi, Javkin is not going to take care of you.”
A supermarket owned by Antonela Roccuzzo’s family has been attacked by armed men in Messi’s hometown of Rosario. One of the individuals was captured by a surveillance camera as he approached the supermarket as the passenger on the back of a motorbike. The gunman fired more than a dozen times at the metal shutters of the establishment. According to local media, the true objective of the attack was Antonela’s husband, Lionel Messi, who they left a message: “Messi, Javkin (Pablo Javkin, Mayor of Rosario) is not going to take care of you”.
Local television in the Argentine city reported on the attack while suggesting that the motive could have been to extort protection money from Messi, who picked up FIFA’s The Best trophy earlier this week. The shots hit the blinds and the façade of Supermercado Único, a store that belongs to the family of Messi’s wife and which is managed by one of Antonela’s cousins. The doors of the establishment remained closed on Thursday following the attack, which occurred at around 3 o’clock in the morning.
After being alerted to the incident, Federal Police agents raced to the scene where there they found a message addressed directly to Lionel: “Messi, we are waiting for you. Javkin is a drug dealer, he won’t take care of you”, read the message scrawled on a piece of cardboard. After an initial investigation, authorities discovered that those in charge of the business had not received any extortion threats during the hours running up to the attack and that the matter could be linked to the city’s Barras bravas, according to reports from Infobae.
Violence in Rosario
The past year has been a turbulent one for residents in Rosario - up to 300 people have lost their lives due to the insecurity that reigns in the city. The mayor, Pablo Javkin, has confronted [Rosario Central head coach] Miguel Ángel Russo for suggesting that players are refusing to come to play in the town because they fear for their own safety - even funeral companies have asked for help to continue working. Just a few days ago, a man died and several others were injured following a shooting at a funeral service for the victim of a murder.