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Updated 11pm
AN ARMED MAN on trial for bankruptcy fraud gunned down a judge, lawyer and co-defendant in a Milan court today in an attack which sent shockwaves through Italy.
The man, named as Claudio Giardiello, 57, escaped on a scooter but was captured by police in Vimercate, a town some 25 kilometres outside Milan.
“This is a moment of great pain, of sadness,” Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said, adding that it was “unthinkable someone should be able to enter a court with a weapon.”
He promised “the government will shed the utmost light on the event” and described the police who had chased down and arrested the man as heroic.
The dead were named as judge Fernando Ciampi, and Giardiello’s former lawyer, 37-year old Lorenzo Alberto Claris Appiani, who was in court as a witness in the case.
Earlier reports from emergency services about a third person killed by a heart attack were corrected after it emerged the third person to die was one of Giardiello’s co-defendants, Giorgio Erba, who was also shot.
The attack “has sparked great alarm and concern throughout the country”, speaker Laura Boldrini told parliament.
Giardiello likely used a false pass to enter the court through a side door reserved for judges and lawyers, who are not obliged to have their belongings scanned by a metal detector, Milan public prosecutor Edmondo Bruto Liberati said.
He fired at his lawyer and one of his co-defendants during a hearing, before heading to the floor below, according to reports from court sources. There, he shot dead the judge, who had been trying to protect a female colleague.
Police said Giardiello fired 13 rounds in total. Two people were injured in the shootout and one is in a serious condition.
Giardiello was caught on video surveillance cameras fleeing the court and police traced him via his numberplate.
‘Ready to kill others’
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told a press conference it appeared the man “was ready to kill others in Vimercate,” following reports Giardiello had been heading towards another co-defendant, who was not present in court.
Valerio Maraniello, who once acted as a lawyer for the shooter, told AFP his ex-client was “an aggressive person, a little paranoid.”
“He was always convinced people were trying to cheat him. He never listened to advice,” he said, adding that he was “not completely surprised” by the deadly attack.
Leaders across the political sphere expressed shock that a gunman had managed to get into the court building.
“The fact that we’re not talking about an organisation which surveyed the place first makes it even more perturbing,” said the head of the Lombardy region, Roberto Maroni.
Alfano — in Milan for a meeting on public order and safety ahead of the 2015 Milan expo which opens in May — promised to investigate what he described as “serious errors” in security.
“If this is the level of security in Expo Milan imagine what potential terrorists can think of doing,” said Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigration Northern League party.
The sound of shots had sparked widespread panic, with lawyers bolting for the exit while police officers went floor to floor searching for the gunman, who was initially thought to be still inside the building.
“All of a sudden we heard at least three or four shots,” lawyer Marcello Ilia told AFP outside the court.
“There were suddenly lots of police officers who told us not to leave the room. They told us someone in a suit and tie was armed and at large in the court,” he said.
The Palace of Justice is in the historic centre of Milan, only a few streets away from the city’s cathedral and shopping district.
Giardiello owned 55 percent of a real estate company which went under in 2008, media reports said.
“I would never have thought he was that desperate, I’m shocked. I could never have imagined he would have been able to do such a thing,” his ex wife was quoted as saying.
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Wonderful news getting this off the streets.
@Derek Moean: whatever about the cannabis which is relatively harmless, good that those dangerous prescription drugs were seized. And as for the cocaine, whatever mixed white powder it is, one thing for sure is it is extremely dangerous leaving it controlled by a black market.
@Derek Moean: A quick phone call and you can have any of those drugs this morning for the same price they were yesterday. The same people who would have bought them yesterday will buy them today. This quite literally has zero impact on the market and is a complete waste of Garda resources especially when they’re cancelling 999 calls and failing to respond to urgent incidents. The insanity continues..
@Declan Doherty: definitely blame Gardai for enforcing the law. Imagine how much time they’d have to invest in other crimes if people didn’t use illegal substances….
@Paul Clancy: You are naive to think that human beings will not consume drugs. Its in our nature.
@Black Iron Tarkus: indeed. But neither could you expect society to exert no control over the recreational use of drugs really. As long as it isn’t allowed people use some caution, which holds it in check to a point but if that barrier was removed I could imagine a lot more problems with people under the influence of whatever they had taken. That said obviously the system that is there now is flawed and needs to be looked at. I do not think the answer is to think that because people will take drugs regardless we just let them at it.
@Mick Murphy: Not allowing something doesn’t stop people from doing it. If people want to take drugs they’ll take them regardless of the law. All prohibition does is drive it underground, create a profitable market for criminals and make it more dangerous for consumers. It also costs the state millions in a futile “war” when we could be generating significant revenue through taxation. We allow the sale of one of the most toxic, and harmful drugs on the planet while denying people the right to far safer alternatives. It’s hypocritical, it’s wrong and it needs to change.
@Mick Murphy: what are you basing your theory of people holding back when drugs are illegal? Is it just a gut feeling or is it based on the exponential increase in drug use since recreational drugs were made illegal?
With respect, I suggest your (and most people’s ) belief that illegality is needed to reduce use, is a fallacy with no evidence to back it up.
The next question is why you want use to reduce… if it is for public health and safety reasons, these goals would be best achieved in a legal regulated way.
If it is purely a moral point of view, that we just don’t like the idea of people altering their mental state… maybe that has no place in our laws.
People will consume drugs and have done since the dawn of time. It is part of the human condition.
@Paul Clancy, the vast majority of people who use illegal drugs do not have to commit crime to pay for their habit. How many robberies do you think The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Steve Jobs, Adam Clayton, Ronnie O’Sullivan etc had to commit to fund their drug use.
@Derek Moehan, oh yeah “wonderful” news, this will improve yours and my day, I sarcastically agree.
Who’s writing the prescriptions for that amount of tablet’s
have your say