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A8 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 31 July 2019
Italy: Slain police officer didn't have gun when stabbed

ROME (AP) — A plain- vere neighborhood but the
clothes police officer had deal wasn't completed be-
forgotten his gun the night cause police officers had
he was fatally stabbed dur- approached.
ing a confrontation with Investigators said the two
two American teenagers then snatched and ran off
in Rome, an Italian police with the knapsack of the
commander said Tuesday. Italian man who had put
Gen. Francesco Gargaro them in contact with the
of Italy's paramilitary Cara- dealer.
binieri police force said Police said when the in-
that even if the officer had termediary called his own
been armed, he would not cellphone, which was in the
have had time to draw his stolen backpack, the teens
weapon before he was told Sergio Brugiatelli they'd
mortally wounded with a return the bag in exchange
military-style knife. for 100 euros ($112) and a
During a news conference, gram of cocaine.
the commander provided After Brugiatelli reported
some of the first details the demand to police,
about the encounter early an appointment with the
Friday in which Deputy Brig- teens was set up and Cer-
adier Mario Cerciello Rega, ciello Rega and Varriale
35, was knifed 11 times. were sent to the rendez-
Cerciello Riga and a part- vous point.
ner, Andrea Varriale, were Varriale recounted later
assigned to respond to an Carabinieri Colonel Lorenzo D'Aloia shows a picture of the knife used to stab Carabinieri's officer that they identified them-
extortion attempt involving Mario Cerciello Rega, during a press conference in Rome, Tuesday, July 30, 2019. selves as Carabinieri and
a failed drug deal, Gargaro Associated Press showed their badges,
said. Thieves had demand- but were immediately at-
ed money and cocaine in diately attacked, Gargaro no time to use it," Gargaro "He is the only one who tacked, the judge wrote in
exchange for returning a said. Asked why Cerciello said. knows why he didn't have it her ruling upholding the de-
stolen backpack, he said. Rega didn't pull his gun, The police said other offi- with him," Gargaro said. tention. The teen suspects
The officers were in plain- Gargaro said the officer cers didn't know Cerciello Two suspects from Califor- told investigators they did
clothes and identified had "forgotten" his weapon Rega didn't have his gun nia, Finnegan Lee Elder, not know the two men who
themselves as Carabinieri after being called into work with him when he set out 19, and Gabriel Christian showed up to meet them
as they approached two on a scheduled day off. on what would be a fatal Natale-Hjorth, 18, were de- were police officers, Judge
suspects, but were imme- "In any case, there was assignment. tained in the officer's slay- Chiara Gallo wrote.
ing. Police have said Elder During his interrogation,
is suspected of stabbing Elder told authorities he
Cerciello Rega and Na- stabbed Cerciello Rega
tale-Hjorth is suspected of because he feared he was
assaulting the other officer. being strangled, the judge
Varriale did have his gun, wrote, noting the teen
but after Natale-Hjorth didn't have any marks on
stopped punching and his neck.
scratching and ran off, the After Cerciello Rega's
officer turned his attention death at a hospital, officers
to his wounded partner, tracked the Americans to
Gargaro said. their hotel room and re-
The general also stressed ported finding the alleged
that under Italian law it is weapon, an 18-centimeter
illegal to fire at a fleeing (7-inch) military-style attack
suspect. If he had done so, knife, hidden in the room's
Varriale "would have been drop ceiling.
under investigation for a Elder told police he had
grave crime." brought the knife with him
A judge who approved the from the United States a
jailing of the two suspects few days earlier, investiga-
Saturday said there were tors said on Tuesday.
"grave" indications the Judge Gallo cited contra-
Americans were respon- dictions in the teens' state-
sible for the officer's death. ments to investigators: El-
Natale-Hjorth, whose father der told investigators that
is Italian, also has Italian citi- Natale-Hjorth hid the knife,
zenship, the Italian Foreign while Natale-Hjorth said he
Ministry said Tuesday. didn't even know about
According to the judge's a stabbing until his friend
written ruling, Elder and Na- woke him hours later and
tale-Hjorth allegedly paid reported he had "used a
for cocaine from a drug knife" and then washed
dealer in Rome's Traste- it.q