Police killer is 'reading the bible'

(ANSA) - Trieste, October 9 - Alejandro 'Tito' Stephan Meran, the man who shot dead two officers at the police headquarters in Trieste last week, cannot remember the shooting spree, his lawyer said on Wednesday after meeting him in jail. "I read the bible. I love my mother very much," the lawyer, Francesco Zacheo, quoted Meran as saying. Zacheo said Meran was in a state of "great confusion".
    He is not well," he added. "He should have been treated and he should be treated". Meran, a 29-year-old Dominican national, killed police officers Pierluigi Rotta and Matteo Demenego and injured another cop. Prosecutors intend to get experts to do a psychiatric report on Meran to determine whether he is mentally ill, sources said this week.
    A warrant issued by a judge at the weekend for Meran to continue to be held in custody said he acted lucidly during the shooting spree and there was no evidence of mental illness.
    He was reportedly taken in by police after his brother called to say he was responsible for an attack and the robbery of a scooter.
    Once at the police station, he is thought to have asked to go to the toilet and then to have taken the gun off the officer who accompanied him.
    He killed that officer and then another, also taking hold of the second policeman's gun, and kept shooting until he was neutralized.
    In all, he is said to have fired 17 shots and police said "he could have killed 10 of us", according to media reports.