Two American teenagers were jailed in Rome on Saturday as authorities carry out a murder investigation in the killing of Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, 35. A detention order issued by prosecutors was shown on Italian state broadcaster RAI, naming the suspects as Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder.
Rome (CNN) -- Friends, family and a grieving community gathered at a church in Rome Sunday to pay last respects to a fallen officer who was allegedly stabbed to death by two young Americans.
Rome (CNN) -- Friends, family and a grieving community gathered at a church in Rome Sunday to pay last respects to a fallen officer who was allegedly stabbed to death by two young Americans.
Hundreds laid flowers and prayed during the wake for Carabinieri police officer Mario Cerciello Rega.
The 35-year-old will be laid to rest Monday in his hometown of Somma Vesuviana, near Naples. His funeral will be held in the same church where he got married less than two months ago. Rega had just returned to work on the police force following his honeymoon.
A 'heinous crime'
Surveillance footage and witness testimonies had allowed the Capitoline Investigative Unit to identify the two responsible for the "heinous crime," according to the police statement.
The two Americans, both from San Francisco, were arrested inside their hotel room in Rome.
Police allege the boys stole a backpack from a man whom they had approached about buying drugs.
After realizing they had received fake product, they looked for the seller, police told the New York Times. Unable to locate him, the teens pursued the man who had pointed them toward the alleged drug-peddler earlier and stole his bag with his cellphone inside.
When the man called his phone, the teens demanded 100 euros and a gram of cocaine for the bag’s return, according to the Carabinieri. Police say the Italian agreed over the phone to meet for the exchange but then alerted the authorities of the theft.
After police were contacted by the owner of the stolen bag, officers met the American suspects under the guise of retrieving the backpack, police said.
Both the Americans are accused of assaulting the police officers, who reportedly identified themselves as law enforcement officers. Then one of the suspects took out a knife and stabbed the officer eight times before fleeing the scene, police said. The officers were unarmed, police added.
The Carabinieri police force said in a statement that the Americans were arrested Friday night for "the crime of aggravated murder and attempted extortion."
Alleged confession
Police allege both Americans confessed to taking part in the assault, and say Elder confessed in the early hours of the interrogation on Friday to murder.
Elder's appointed public prosecutor, Francesco Codini, said that during his court appearance Saturday his client "maintained his right to remain silent" in front of a judge.
In a statement to CNN, Elder's family said: "We write as a family to express our deepest condolences to the grieving family and community that loved Brigadier Cerciello Rega. We are shocked and dismayed at the events that have been reported, but have very little independent information about these events."
Elder's family added that they haven't been able to have any communication with their son and appealed to the public to respect their privacy.
"We plan to go to Rome as soon as the State Department assures us we will be able to see our son," the Elder family said in another statement.
"We are also aware of the funeral plans for Officer Rega, and wish to be respectful of his family and friends at this devastating time."
Elder's father, Ethan Elder, spoke briefly with CNN outside his San Francisco home Sunday and called his son's case a "precarious situation." Ethan Elder says he wants people to know his son is "a good man."
Italian police can legally hold suspects for an entire year without official charges.
Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini commented on the blindfold photo Sunday, saying in a statement: "To those complaining about the blindfolding of the arrested, remember that the only victim to cry for is the man, the son, the husband who is 35 years old, a Carabinieri officer, a servant of the homeland who died in service at the hands of the people who, if guilty, deserve only life imprisonment."
The day before, Salvini had called for life-long prison sentences for the accused teens, despite them not having been put on trial.
"Hoping that the murderers of our poor policeman will never get out of prison, I remind the do-gooders that in the United States whoever kills risks the death penalty. I'm not saying we should go that far, but life in prison (obviously working), this, yes!" Salvini wrote in a message on Twitter on Saturday.
Source: cnn.com, Valentina Di Donato, Barbie Latza Nadeau and Sarah Dean, July 28, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde