U.S. teens jailed in cop killing
Two American teenagers who were classmates at a California high school spent a second night in a Rome jail Saturday after they were interrogated for hours about their alleged roles in the murder of an Italian policeman.
Investigators contended in written statements that the pair had confessed to their roles in the grisly slaying. Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, a member of the storied Carabinieri paramilitary corps, was stabbed eight times, allegedly by one of the teens, leaving him bleeding on a street close to the teens’ upscale hotel near Rome’s Tiber River.
Italian authorities identified the two as Gabriel Christian NataleHjorth, 18, and Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, and said both were born in San Francisco. Police said they were vacationing in the Italian capital without family members.
In the detention order, Elder is described as repeatedly stabbing the 35-year-old officer.
Investigators said Cerciello Rega, along with another Carabinieri officer, were both in plainclothes when they confronted the Americans about 3 a.m. Friday. Under Italian law, persons participating in a killing, but who didn’t actually carry out the slaying itself, risk being charged with murder. Both suspects are also being investigated for attempted extortion.
An Italian investigator said the pair had snatched the bag of a drug dealer in Rome after the man apparently gave them a different substance instead of cocaine.
In a statement, the Carabinieri contended that the Americans demanded cash and cocaine to return the knapsack. They said the bag, with a phone inside, was snatched from an Italian man. The Americans, police said, “threatened to not give it back to him without payment of 100 euros and a gram of cocaine.” The bag’s owner reported the theft, and the plainclothes officers were sent to the site of the drug exchange to allegedly turn over the bag for ransom, the statement said.
The Carabinieri statement said the Americans during their interrogation and confronted with “hard evidence,” had “confessed to their blame.”