Right-wing suspect ‘lucid and determined’ during shooting

The extreme right-wing suspect in a shooting rampage that wounded six African migrants in Italy has demonstrated no remorse for his actions and was “lucid and determined, aware of what he had done”, an Italian law enforcement official has said.

Luca Traini, 28, was being held in jail as police investigate him on multiple counts of attempted murder for Saturday’s shooting rampage in the central Italian city of Macerata, with the aggravating circumstance of racial hatred.

Traini was an unsuccessful candidate last year in a local election for the anti-migrant Northern League party and friends have been quoted by news agency ANSA as saying he previously had ties with the neo-fascist Forza Nuova and Casapound political parties.

Colonel Michele Roberti, the Carabinieri commander in Macerata, said that “it’s likely that he carried out this crazy gesture as a sort of retaliation, a sort of vendetta” after a Nigerian man was arrested in connection with the murder of an Italian teenager a few days previously in the same city.

The dismembered remains of Pamela Mastropietro, 18, were found in two suitcases days after she walked away from a drug rehabilitation community.

Police arrested the Nigerian suspect after finding the victim’s bloody clothes in his apartment, along with a receipt from a pharmacy where she had bought a syringe, and knives that are consistent with the crime.

Col Roberti ruled out any connection between Traini and the murdered woman.

Police photos showed the shooting suspect with a neonazi tattoo prominently on his forehead and an Italian flag tied around his neck.

One of Traini’s victims, a 29-year-old woman identified only as Jennifer, told a newspaper from her hospital bed that she no longer feels free to walk around the city “with peace of mind” after the attack.

She said she “never hurt anyone”, adding that she was “talking and laughing with three other people” when she was struck by the bullet.

One of the six victims – the others were five men – was treated and released on Saturday. The remaining patients were all in stable condition, with one in intensive care and Jennifer facing surgery on her shoulder, doctors said yesterday.

Herboyfriend,ogieigbinowania, told a newspaper that they were waiting at a bus station when he saw a man pointing something at them from a car. He realised then that it was a gun.

He said; “I gave Jennifer a push to get her out of the way and threw myself down. And I heard a shot – boom.” 0 Neo-fascist support Luca Traini is accused of having shot six people – all of them African migrants – in Macerata on Saturday