Copy of Mein Kampf found in bedroom of Italian suspected of shooting migrants

Onlookers said the suspect made a fascist salute before being handcuffed.

By REUTERS
Updated: FEBRUARY 5, 2018 13:22
Italian police release video of migrant shooting suspect's apartment (Reuters/Carabinieri Police Handout)
Italy's Carabinieri police released video on Sunday relating to the arrest of an Italian man suspected of having opened fire on African migrants in the central city of Macerata on Saturday, in an attack that injured six people before his detention in what police said was a racially motivated attack.
The video showed the suspect's bedroom in the apartment in Via Brodolini where he was living with his mother, with belongings that included a a copy of 'Mein Kampf' by Adolf Hitler and a large knife.
Police named the suspected assailant as Luca Traini, 28, and said he had an Italian flag draped over his shoulders when he was seized in the street by armed police. Onlookers said he made a fascist salute before being handcuffed.
Police said Traini, who has a neo-Nazi symbol tattooed above his eyebrow, admitted to carrying out the drive-by shootings and had shown no remorse.
Leftist politicians pinned blame for the shooting spree on the far-right League party that looks set to make major gains in a March 4 national election.
League leader Matteo Salvini, who has forged an electoral pact with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, distanced himself from the attack, but said the violence was the direct result of mass immigration into Italy in recent years.
"If anyone is to blame, it is the government which has allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants to come here without any limits," Salvini told La Stampa newspaper on Sunday.
Leftist politicians accused Salvini of stirring dangerous sentiment in a country that struggles to get to grips with the legacy of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943.
"Salvini has created fear and chaos and should apologize before the Italian people," said Laura Boldrini, speaker of the lower house of parliament and a leading figure in the left-wing Free and Equal party.
Seeking the moral high ground, the ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD) called for calm. "It would be easy to stir controversy against those who fuel hatred against us every day, but it would be a mistake," said PD leader Matteo Renzi.


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