(Photo Credit: Italian Carabinieri via AP)

Rome Police Reported To Use Unethical Means For Detainees

Two American teenagers from San Francisco – Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 18, and Finnegan Lee Elder, 19 – have been charged with killing a young Italian police officer in Rome. In a photo released by the Italian police, Natale-Hjorth is shown handcuffed and blindfolded, which is against legal police procedure. Francesco Gargaro, the head of the Rome police department, confirmed to the Associated Press that blindfolding suspects during interrogations is illegal.

Gargaro said the American teen was blindfolded for “a few minutes, four or five,” in order to prevent him from seeing documents related to the investigation. He said the department was investigating who took the photograph and how it was leaked to the press.

(Photo Credit: abcnews.go.com)

Natale-Hjorth and Elder have allegedly confessed to killing a police officer named Mario Cerciello Rega in a drug deal gone wrong. The two teens aren’t getting much sympathy in Italy. Instead, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, said the only person to “cry for” is the murdered police officer.

“To those who complain about the arrest of a prisoner, I remember that the only victim to cry for is a man, a son, a 35-year-old husband, a #Carabiniere, a servant of the Fatherland died in service at the hands of people who, if guilty, deserve only life imprisonment,” Salvini tweeted.