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US student reportedly confesses to killing police officer in central Rome US students held after police officer stabbed to death in Rome
(about 16 hours later)
A 19-year-old US student has confessed to killing a policeman in central Rome, in a crime that has shaken Italy, national news agency ANSA reported on Friday. Two male American students are being held in jail as authorities investigate the murder of a police officer in Rome.
Mario Cerciello Rega, an officer with the Carabinieri military police, was repeatedly stabbed early on Friday after trying to arrest two people suspected of stealing a bag from a man in a popular tourist district. The students, aged 19, have been named as Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, both from San Francisco. They were reportedly on a study programme in the Italian capital and due to return home on Friday.
Initial media reports suggested the assailants were North Africans, but police later said they had arrested two US students in an upscale city centre hotel and had taken them in for questioning over the incident. Neither man was named. On Saturday morning, it was reported that Italian police said the pair had confessed, but Elder’s lawyer later said his client had exercised his right not to respond to questions during a hearing in the Rome jail where they had been detained. The judge did not rule whether they would be kept in jail beyond an initial three-day period.
ANSA reported that one of the two had confessed to the killing. The police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, was stabbed several times in the early hours of Friday after trying to arrest two people suspected of stealing a bag from a man in Trastevere, a central Rome district popular with tourists and young people, and trying to blackmail him.
Police murders are rare in Italy and politicians of all parties expressed their horror and outrage. “We still have to establish what the motive was and the circumstances,” a Rome police spokesperson told the Observer. “But this is the first time something like this has happened to a police officer in years. Mario was a great person, we are all devastated.”
“A manhunt is under way in Rome to catch the bastard who tonight stabbed to death a Carabinieri,” the interior minister Matteo Salvini tweeted, adding that the perpetrator should do “hard labour in prison for the rest of their days”. Separately, police released video showing two men following another person who accused them of later stealing his bag. The bag contained his phone and a small amount of cash, police said.
Police released video showing two men following another person in the Trastevere district of Rome. The person being followed accused the two men of later stealing his bag, containing his phone and a small amount of cash, police said. According to the Italian media, the pair had attempted to purchase cocaine but were aggrieved when they were sold aspirin, leading them to allegedly retaliate and steal the bag before fleeing.
The owner called his own phone and one of the thieves offered to sell the bag back to him, agreeing to meet in a nearby neighbourhood. The owner then alerted the police, who approached the suspects. The owner called his own phone and one of the thieves offered to sell the bag back to him, agreeing to meet in Prati, a nearby neighbourhood. The owner then alerted the police, who attempted to make arrests.
One of the two men pulled a knife and stabbed Cerciello Rega, the 35-year-old policeman, who was in civilian clothes and had married less than two months ago. He died almost immediately. One of the two men pulled a knife and repeatedly stabbed Rega, who was in civilian clothes and had recently returned from his honeymoon. He died of his injuries in Santo Spirito hospital, while another officer was injured in the incident.
Initial media reports suggested the assailants were North Africans, but police later said they had arrested the two US students in an upscale city centre hotel where they found a long knife along with a bloodstained T-shirt and took them in for questioning over the incident.
Police murders are rare in Italy and cross-party politicians expressed their horror and outrage.
Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and interior minister, wrote on Instagram on Saturday: “We hope the murderer of our poor police officer never leaves jail. I remind the do-gooders that in the United States those who kill risk the death penalty. I’m not saying we go that far, but jail for life, yes!”
Laura Boldrini, a leftwing politician, said on Friday. “I hope those arrested for this horrendous crime are arrested and severely punished. To be killed at 35 while doing your duty for the community is intolerable.”
Nicola Zingaretti, leader of the centre-left Democratic party, said: “The tragic death of carabiniere Mario Cerciello, who died during an inspection, is painful. All my condolences, and that of the Democratic party, to his family.”
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