Godfather-style shooting in Corsica hospital

In a crime which calls to mind the film “The Godfather”, a gunman penetrated a hospital bedroom in Bastia in Corsica on Monday and tried to kill restaurateur Olivier Sisti, who was lying in bed trying to recover after a previous attempt to kill him a week ago.

Google Maps/Screen capture

Olivier Sisti, who is 37, was shot four times. He lives in the Plaine Orientale region of Bastia, where there have been six murders in the last 18 months, mostly related to disputes over property and tourism ventures.

Preliminary evidence suggests that at 04.45 am, two men on motorcycles parked in the car park of the hospital in Bastia.

Sisti’s room was on the ground floor because he was attached to specialised intensive care equipment which could not be moved to another part of the hospital.

One of the two men held the 9mm calibre automatic weapon to the window pane of his room and fired in the direction of the bed.

The room was guarded on the corridor side by two policemen, while the outside access was patrolled regularly.

After the first gunshots, staff turned out the lights, but the gunman continued to fire, and 14 bullet marks were counted after the incident.

The preliminary enquiry will try to establish how the attackers knew which room Sisti was occupying, and what the security arrangements were.

He was later flown to a hospital in Nice where doctors say his condition is not life-threatening.

On 21 May, he was injured on the face and hand when he was shot at as he was driving near his home in Aléria, south of Bastia.

Sisti was also targeted in 2010, in Ghisonaccia, where he owns a restaurant. On that occasion he received injures to his thorax and legs.