Slain Carabiniere had forgotten his gun

(ANSA) - Rome, July 30 - Mario Cerciello Rega, the Carabiniere police officer stabbed to death in Rome last week, and his partner Andrea Varriale "were attacked immediately" by two young Americans accused of the homicide, Francesco Gargaro, the provincial commander of the Carabinieri, told a press conference on Tuesday. "There was no chance to use weapons, to react". Californians Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 18, and Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, are accused of the homicide of Cerciello Rega at the end of a string of events sparked by a drugs deal that went wrong. Cerciello Rega was stabbed 11 times after going with Varriale to a rendezvous with the Americans after one of them stole the ruck sack of a middle man involved in setting up the deal.
    Elder and Natale-Hjorth were allegedly trying to get money and drugs off the middle man in exchange for returning the bag.
    Police said that Elder has confessed to stabbing Cerciello Rega while Natale-Hjorth punched Varriale.
    The Carabinieri told the press conference that Cerciello Rega had forgotten his gun, while stressing that "there was no chance of reacting" even if he had remembered it.
    "He didn't imagine being faced with a person with an 18cm knife and he didn't expect to be attacked when he presented himself as a Carabinieri," said Gargaro.
    "It's the sort of operation you do almost every day in Rome".