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Updated: Two US teenagers arrested over killing of Italian police officer

Two US teenagers appeared in court in Rome on Saturday after they were arrested over the murder of an Italian police officer whose death has sparked a national outcry.

Published: 27 July 2019 12:27 CEST
Updated: 28 July 2019 08:51 CEST
Updated: Two US teenagers arrested over killing of Italian police officer
File photo: Michey/Depositphotos

Officer Mario Rega Cerciello died after being stabbed eight times as he and a colleague tried to arrest two men following a complaint for theft. 

Cerciello, 35, had only recently returned from his honeymoon.

His killing took on a political aspect when the country's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, responding to initial reports that the suspects were North African, denounced the killers as “bastards”.

Police said they arrested the two American teens on Friday as they were preparing to check out of their Rome hotel and fly home. 

Prosecutors have charged them over the killing, which occurred in the early hours of Friday morning in Rome's city centre.

Media reports citing the police named the two suspects as Christian Gabriel Natale Hjorth and Elder Finnegan Lee, both aged 19.

One of them had confessed to the killing but said that he did not realise that Cerciello was a police officer because both the officers involved were in plain clothes, according to Italian media reports, citing the police.

The incident happened in an up-market neighbourhood near Vatican City.

A statement from Italian police said that the two Americans had confessed to stealing a bag from an Italian. They were demanding 100 euros and a gram of cocaine for its return.

The victim of the theft tipped off the police, but when the two officers went to arrest the pair, one of them pulled a knife.

Italian media reports, citing investigators, said that the two US teenagers told police that the man they had stolen from had sold them aspirin powder instead of cocaine.

The suspect who confessed to stabbing Cerciello said he had taken the officers for friends of the alleged dealer and had panicked.

Police said surveillance cameras helped them track the pair to their four-star hotel where they arrested them. Their bags were packed and they had been planning to fly home that same evening.

Officers found a large knife hidden in the false ceiling of their hotel room and seized clothing that the pair were thought to have been wearing on the night of the murder.

Prosecutors in Rome are holding them on suspicion of aggravated homicide and attempted extortion.

The American who allegedly confessed to killing remained silent during a court hearing in front of a judge on Saturday afternoon, his lawyer told local media.

The killing has made front-page headlines in Italy. Many people have left floral tributes left at the spot where Cerciello died.

The initial confusion that those responsible might be north African started after police released a statement saying Cerciello's partner at the scene had said the suspects were “probably African”.

“Apparently they're not Italians,” said Salvini during a television appearance Friday morning. “What a surprise!”

He called for “hard labour for life… for these bastards”. It was only later that police arrested the two Americans.

Cerciello is to be buried on Monday in his home town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, southern Italy.

A spokesman for the US State Department said: “We are aware of these reports. When a US citizen is detained overseas, the Department works to provide all appropriate consular assistance.”

READ ALSO: Salvini wants Europe to take migrants from Italy coastguard

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ROME

Reader question: How common is air conditioning in Rome apartments?

With summer at the Eternal City's doors and temperatures on the rise, one reader asks: how easy is it to find an apartment in Rome with air conditioning?

Published: 13 June 2024 12:48 CEST
Updated: 16 June 2024 08:21 CEST
Reader question: How common is air conditioning in Rome apartments?

Question: ‘I’m thinking of moving to Rome next year. With the effects of climate change and summers getting hotter, are air conditioners becoming more common in homes? If so, how does that work with the peculiar Italian system of consumption of electricity?”

Last summer was a scorcher in Italy, and Rome last July registered its hottest temperature since records began, at 41.8 degrees Celsius.

Yet despite warnings from Italian health authorities to drink water and stay inside, one object was missing from most homes in the capital: an air-conditioning unit.

READ MORE: Seven tips for surviving (and enjoying) Rome in summer

Air conditioning is far from guaranteed in apartments in Italy in general: partly because of the amount of energy they use, but there’s a long-standing fear of cold air (colpo d’aria) and a belief that if you stand near cold currents, you will be ill.

While this may be true for some people, soaring temperatures suggest this fear will increasingly be put to rest – and the most recent data suggests that it somewhat has.

A growing number of homeowners are looking at installing air-conditioning units in Lazio, the region where Rome sits, with a six percent rise in enquiries from 2021 to 2022.

This increase was attributed to the launch of Italy’s bonus condizionatori, a state incentive launched in 2022 for the purchase of more efficient AC units, as well as to rising temperatures.

The trend seems to be nationwide, with certain types of air conditioning units seeing a 27.9 percent increase in the first half of last year, according to association Assoclima.

READ ALSO: What are the rules for installing air conditioning in your Italian home?

However, this doesn’t mean it’s getting much easier to find an apartment with air conditioning: in Rome, their absence is still all too apparent

If you go into most restaurants, particularly outside the city centre, you will not find it. If you are going on holiday, a lot of places advertise having AC when perhaps it should be a given.

And if you’re renting or buying a property, chances are you’ll be advised to buy a fan and close the shutters on the windows during midday.

Finding an apartment with air conditioning in Rome is possible, but still a rarity. Real-estate search portal Idealista recently surveyed the percentage of properties up for rent or sale in each city which had air-conditioning. Rome did not even make the top 20.

What’s more, it’s hard to know what will happen when air conditioning becomes more common in Rome. There were blackouts last summer in the Rome quarters of Torpignattara, Alessandrino, and Marconi after people turned up their air conditioners in an attempt to keep cool.

Rome isn’t the only part of Italy where this happens: widespread blackouts in Milan in 2022 were blamed on soaring air conditioner use amid extreme heat.

There’s also the fact that standard household power capacity in Italy is set at 3.3 KW (3,300 Watts), which many find is too low to run more than one power-hungry appliance at a time. This limit can be increased by your electricity provider, for a fee, but the expense is often prohibitive.

For all these reasons, air conditioning is still not common in Rome, but it is on the rise. If it’s a must-have for you it’s always necessary to double-check before leasing anywhere.

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