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2 American Teenagers Accused of killing Italian Policeman

Sabina Castelfranco

   ROME - Two American teenagers have been charged with the alleged
   killing of an Italian police officer following a drug deal gone wrong.
   The northern Californians refused to answer questions from the judge
   who nonetheless decided to keep them in custody. Italy is under shock
   at the violent killing of the officer.

   The two teenagers were staying in a central Rome hotel where police
   found what they believe is the murder weapon, a long knife that had
   been hidden in the room's dropped ceiling along with bloody clothes
   believed to have been worn during the killing.

   Nineteen-year-old Finnegan Lee Elder and 18-year-old Gabriel Christian
   Natale-Hjorth were high school classmates in the Bay Area of San
   Francisco and were at the end of their vacation in the Italian capital.
   Police allege that on Thursday night the two went to buy some drugs in
   the area of Trastevere in Rome but instead of cocaine they were given a
   different substance.

   Furious that they were tricked by the alleged pusher, investigators say
   the teenagers went back and stole the drug dealer's bag with cash and a
   cell phone. Witnesses said they appeared intoxicated with alcohol and
   drugs.

   The man who suffered the theft reportedly called the police saying he
   had arranged a meeting with the young Americans to get his bag back. He
   said the Americans had demanded drugs and money to return the bag.

   According to the authorities, two officers in plainclothes decided to
   go to the meeting set up with the young Californians instead of the
   alleged pusher.

   Although the police officers identified themselves as Carabinieri,
   witnesses said a scuffle ensued with one of the teenagers punching one
   of the officers and the other drawing a long knife and stabbing the
   other officer eight times. According to an initial autopsy 35-year-old
   Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega died of massive loss of blood when
   he arrived at the hospital.

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