Sporting a neo-Nazi tattoo on his forehead and an Italian flag draped across his shoulders, a failed political candidate allegedly terrorized an Italian city Saturday by shooting six African immigrants in a two-hour gun spree.
Luca Traini took aim at his victims from the window of his car, according to reports, as he cruised through Macerata, a city of 43,000 about 150 miles northeast of Rome.
“He drove around in his car and when he saw any colored people, he shot them,” said Marcello Mancini, a Macerata resident.
Police tried to limit the casualties by halting Macerata’s public transit system and ordering city residents to stay indoors. Five men and one woman, all black, were wounded. One of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries.
Cops busted Traini, 28, as he tried to run from his black Alfa Romeo 147 in the city’s center.
Before he was arrested, Traini gave a fascist salute and shouted: “Viva Italia!” — “Long live Italy!” witnesses said.
He ran for local office last year under the banner of Italy’s right-wing, anti-immigrant Northern League.
Macerata, famous for its outdoor opera festivals, is where a Nigerian man was arrested several days ago in the horrific killing of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro.
Her dismembered body was found Wednesday in two suitcases, two days after she walked away from a drug-rehab center.
Suspicion fell on the local African community after witnesses said they saw Nigerian asylum seeker Innocent Oseghale, 29, with the suitcases in which Mastropietro’s remains were found.
Oseghale refused to talk to the police after his arrest.
“What was this worm still doing in Italy?” Northern League leader Matteo Salvini wrote on Facebook after the crime.
Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini saw a connection between Mostropietro’s killing and the victims of Saturday’s shootings.
“They were all of color, this is obviously a grave fact. As was grave what happened to Pamela,” Carancini said. “The closeness of the two events makes you imagine there could be a connection.”
Italian news reports said Carabinieri officers found a gun in Traini’s car. Traini planned his attack but acted alone, officials said.
The violence came amid a heated political campaign in Italy ahead of a general election planned for March 4.
Anti-foreigner sentiment is a key theme in the contest as Italy struggles with large numbers of migrants coming across the Mediterranean Sea. More than 600,000 mainly African migrants have reached Italy by boat over the past four years.
Traini was a Northern League candidate for the town council in Corridonia, about seven miles south of Macerata. He lost.
He previously was affiliated with Italian extremist parties like the neo-fascist Forza Nuova and CasaPound, Traini’s friends told the news agency ANSA.
Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni condemned the shooting spree, saying, “hatred and violence will not succeed in dividing us.”
