• The shots at the police station and those agents shot to death. Chronicle of an afternoon of madness in Trieste
  • Shooting in front of Trieste police headquarters, three agents struck
  • He removes an agent's weapon and shoots at police headquarters in Trieste, killing two policemen

Share

05 October 2019Today, a day of mourning in Trieste, where two police officers were killed yesterday afternoon in the police headquarters. Alejandro Augusto Stephan Meran, the young Dominican accused of killing the two agents, was joined in hospital last night by the magistrate on duty and the prosecutor, after the first in the police station had heard the brother of the homicide. The suspect, the police reported, made use of the right to remain silent. The magistrates declared him at 11.00 pm in custody. We await judges' decisions on the validation of the detention and the request for pre-trial detention.

The dynamics of the shooting
Two gunshots for agent Pierluigi Rotta, struck on the left side of his chest and abdomen; three for the chosen agent Matteo Demenego, under the left clavicle, the left side and the back. It is the dramatic accounting of the shooting that led to the death of the two policemen, despite attempts at resuscitation by rescuers.

To reconstruct the whole affair of yesterday is the police headquarters itself. Everything started yesterday morning, from a "trivial" circumstance: a woman on a scooter, in via Carducci, is thrown to the ground by a young black man, who steals her vehicle. In the afternoon, a telephone call from Carlysle Stephan Meran arrives at the Trieste police station, reporting that he has learned from his brother Alejandro Augusto that he is the author of the robbery.

The Dominican is willing to accompany the operators to his brother's home to retrieve the vehicle, specifying that Alejandro Augusto suffers from mental disorders, although he is not currently followed by the mental health services of the capital. Two crews in service of Volante and a squad of the Flying Squad go to the young man's house, along with staff from the 118. Alejandro is at home, he appears "collaborative and calm". He is accompanied to the police station along with his brother, aboard a police car.

Once inside the General Prevention Office, the author of the robbery asks to go to the bathroom, and succeeds in subtracting (in ways not specified in the long note of the Police Headquarters) the order gun supplied to the Rotta agent, hitting him with two shots. Feeling the noise, Demenego rushes to check what is happening, being hit in turn three times. In the ensuing chaos, Carlysle, the elder brother, first barricades himself in the General Prevention Office, fearful and in shock, even blocking the door with a desk. Then, not hearing any more shots, he flees to the police station underground, where he is identified and blocked by the intervening agents.



Meanwhile, the murderer tries to take the access stairs to the upper floors, but is made to desist from the staff present in the offices, to which he directs other blows without causing injuries; then he tries to gain the exit from the Questura crossing the adjacent atrium, holding both the ordering guns stolen from the agents, and exploding further gun shots to the personnel in charge of the guardhouse, who responds to the fire . It is at this point that a Assistant Chief of the PAS is hit in the left hand, who is currently hospitalized in the Trieste hospital awaiting surgery.

Once outside the building, the fugitive seeks first to enter a parked steering wheel near the entrance to Tor Bandena's street, and then, noticing the Flying Squad car, opens fire towards the vehicle and to the address of the staff, hitting the passenger side door just opened. The operators respond to the fire, hitting the man in the groin, without damaging vital parts, being able to render him harmless and disarm him, and verifying that one of the stolen guns just before was opened and with the empty tank, while the other had the dog armed. In the meantime, the 118 health workers who intervened tried in vain to revive the agents struck and to help the injured.

Lamorgese: "Deep sorrow"
The Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, expressed with a telegram to the Chief of Police, Franco Gabrielli, and to all the State Police the deep sorrow for the death of the chosen agent Matteo Demenego and the agent Pierluigi Rotta, killed this afternoon during the completion of the service in Trieste. The minister wanted to send the feelings of concern and concern to their families. The owner of the Interior Ministry also expressed a wish for a speedy recovery for the Assistant Chief Coordinator Cristiano Resmini, who was injured, and wished to express his heartfelt thanks to the women and men of the State Police for their extraordinary commitment and professionalism put into field every day to protect everyone's safety.

The minister left this morning from Trieste where he had gone last night. The Chief of Police, Franco Gabrielli, also left from Trieste, on the spot to express closeness to the men and women in force at the police station where the tragic shooting took place.



Sap: sorrowful, deep condolences
"We express our deep condolences to the family of the two colleagues killed this afternoon in Trieste. We are saddened". These are the words of Stefano Paoloni, general secretary of the autonomous police union (Sap), commenting on what happened in Trieste this afternoon, where two agents were shot dead in front of the police station.

Casellati: Country cries two of his best sons
"I express my deepest condolences to the State Police for the two agents who were killed in Trieste and all my disdain for what happened. To the families of the two boys who lost their lives, while carrying out their duty as guardians with courage and self-sacrifice of security and legality, come all my closeness ". This is what the Senate president, Elisabetta Casellati, said in a statement. "Whoever strikes a man of the police forces, affects the state. Today the whole of Italy is mourning two of his best sons", he adds.

Mattarella: moving participation in family pain
The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, sent the following message to the Chief of Police, Prefect Franco Gabrielli: "I learned with deep sadness the news of the barbaric killing of the chosen agent Matteo De Menego and of the agent Pierluigi Rotta, mortally wounded at the Trieste Police Headquarters while they were engaged in a service operation.In this painful circumstance, I wish to express to you and to the State Police my sympathetic closeness, renewing the sentiments of consideration and gratitude for the daily commitment of the operators of the Police to the service of the citizens. Please convey to the family members of the agents the expressions of my emotional participation in their pain ". A note from the Quirinale communicates it.

Reactions from the political world. Conte: tragedy wounds state
The incredible death of the two police officers inside the Trieste police station leaves politics and Italy as a whole without words. A tragedy that "hurts the state", Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte comments bitterly, following the story closely from the first moments, hearing Gabrielli and Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese on the phone. The former prefect of Milan, with the chief of police, reached the Trieste police headquarters in the first hours after the drama.

"Whoever strikes a man of the police forces, affects the state and affects each of us", writes Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on social media. Nicola Zingaretti , the secretary of the Democratic Party, immediately reacted, not wanting to leave the center-right the monopoly of a new security debate: "A thought for their families, the police and all the women and men of the police force who with the their work fights crime and makes our lives safer, "he writes. "Terrible news in Trieste. My condolences to the families of the agents. And to the big family of the police", echoes the founder of Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi .

"Shock and pain" for the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini , who sends a prayer - he wants to emphasize - "as an Italian": "Always on the side of our law enforcement", he specifies. The governor of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga , does not launch himself into proclamations and limits himself to gathering around the families and joining the mourning citizen proclaimed by the mayor of the city, Roberto Dipiazza.

To the Northern League's first player, Roberto Calderoli , the Carroccio leaves the strongest words: "We weep two other heroes, two other servants of the State who have fallen into the fulfillment of their duty, to guarantee the safety of each one of us. weeks, without a reason, have spread words of hatred against those who wear a uniform: all these people now make a serious and profound reflection ". No indulgence, thunder, for the killers who repeatedly hit, "knowing they kill": "These criminals deserve life imprisonment without a discount day. And no indulgence for the announced and predictable jerks and jackals who will now write on social networks two less' or idiocies of this kind ", he insists, referring to the sentences on the social media of the Novara teacher, after the killing of the carabiniere Mario Cerciello Rega in Rome.

The leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Melon i, is much tougher. He asks for a life sentence, but with more shouted tones: "Let the two bastard murderers rot in jail for the rest of their days: justice be done, without extenuating circumstances and without discounts".