Luigi Preiti
ABC News
An unemployed bricklayer shot two Italian policemen in a crowded square outside the premier's office Sunday just as Italy's new government was being sworn in, investigators said.
The gunman's intended target was politicians but none were in the square so he shot at the Carabinieiri paramilitary police, Rome Prosecutor Pierfilippo Laviani told reporters, citing what he said were the suspect's own words.
Sunday was supposed to be a hopeful day when the debt-ridden nation finally got new government to solve its many problems. But shots rang out in Colonna Square near a busy shopping and strolling area shortly after 11:30 a.m. just as Premier Enrico Letta and his new ministers were taking their oaths at the Quirinal presidential office about a kilometer (half mile) away.
The suspected gunman, dressed in a dark business suit, was immediately wrestled to the ground by police outside Chigi Palace, which houses the premier's office and other government offices. The politicians went to the palace later Sunday for their first Cabinet meeting.
Laviani identified the alleged assailant as Luigi Preiti, a 49-year-old from Calabria, a southern agricultural area plagued by organized crime and chronic unemployment.
Laviani said Preiti, who was taken to the hospital for bruises, confessed to the shooting and didn't appear mentally unbalanced.
"He is a man full of problems, who lost his job, who lost everything," the prosecutor said. "He was desperate. In general, he wanted to shoot at politicians, but given that he couldn't reach any, he shot at the Carabinieri" paramilitary police.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the alleged gunman wanted to kill himself after the shooting but ran out of bullets. He said six shots were fired in all. The gunman used a semi-automatic pistol whose serial number had been scraped off.
There are fascinating differences between what happens in Italy and in the US. For one thing, the rarity of incidents like this. For another the police response. I suppose it's hard for Americans to understand how no police bullets were fired.
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