American says he knifed Italian officer in self-defense

One of two Americans arrested in Rome in the murder of an Italian police officer said he knifed the plainclothes officer because he was afraid he was being strangled, according to an Italian judge.

Judge Chiara Gallo wrote in a court order upholding the jailing of the two men that Finnegan Lee Elder told authorities he stabbed Carabinieri officer Mario Cerciello Rega after feeling pressure on his neck.

The judge said Elder did not have any marks on his neck resulting from strangulation.

Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 18, and Elder, 19 – both from San Francisco and visiting Italy as tourists – were arrested Saturday at an upscale hotel in Rome in Friday’s stabbing death of Cerciello Rega, who had returned from his honeymoon days earlier.

Elder is accused of stabbing Cerciello Rega, who approached the teens with another officer after a drug deal gone wrong.

The Carabinieri police force said in a statement that the two confessed after being interrogated and facing “overwhelming evidence.”

Sunday, Italian newspapers published a photo of Natale-Hjorth with a blindfold over his eyes and in handcuffs before his interrogation.

Blindfolding a suspect is “illegal. It’s not allowed,” Provincial Cmdr. Francesco Gargaro said.

The officer who put the blindfold on Natale-Hjorth did so to prevent him from seeing documents related to the investigation, the commander said.

Gallo concluded in her order that the two Americans showed “a total absence of self-control” and were highly dangerous.

Cerciello Rega died at a hospital. His funeral was held Monday in the same church in Somma Vesuviana where he was married six weeks ago.