Mired in recession and suffering from souring unemployment,
Italy has been in political paralysis since an inconclusive February election.
Social and political tensions have been running high among voters divided
between center-left, conservative an anti-Government political parties.
An unemployed bricklayer shot 2 Italian police men in a
crowded square outside the premier’s office on Sunday just as Italy’s new
government was being sworn in, investigators said. The gunman’s intended target
were politicians but none were in the square so he shot at the Carabinieiri Para
military police, Roam prosecutor Pierfilippo Laviani told reporters, siting
what he said were suspect’s won 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
am just as Premier Enrico Letta and his new minister were taking their oaths at
the Quirinal presidential office about a kilometre away.
The shooting panicked tourists and locals in the square,
whose centrepiece is a towering, second-century ancient Roman column honouring
Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Roam was packed on Sunday with people enjoying the
last day of a four day weekend.
Fanuel Morelli, a camera man working for AP television, said
he was struck by the gunman’s firm, calm stance. “When I heard the first shot,
I turned around and saw a man standing there, some 15 meters away from me. He
held his arm out and I saw him fire another 5 6 shots,” Morelli said. He was
firing at the second Carabiniere, who was about four meters in front of him.
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.” One police man was shot in the neck and is in critical
condition. The other, was shot in the leg, suffered a fracture, doctors said.
A women passing by during the shooting was slightly injured,
Rome’s mayor said. It was unclear if she was grazed by a bullet or hurt in the
panic sparked by the gunfire. 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.