Cops break down door to arrest man, 80, who shot wife

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 23 - Police broke down a door Monday night to arrest an 80-year-old man who had holed up in his home near Naples after shooting his 77-year-old wife twice and seriously injuring her with a small-calibre gun.
    The Carabinieri from Naples smashed down the door using a battering ram at about ten o'clock at night.
    The man, who had been holed up for about 12 hours, did not resist arrest.
    The incident took place at Bacoli, not far from the Campanian capital.
    The man has been charged with attempted murder.
    He is being guarded in a local hospital where he was taken to assess his physical and psychiatric condition.
    Prosecutors will decide on the basis of test results whether to place him under house arrest or prison custody, which is unlikely due to his age, judicial sources said.
    But he may be placed in jail because he had threatened to kill himself and would be safer in prison, they added.
    His wife is in hospital in serious but not life-threatening condition.
    The man shot her twice in the side.
    The reasons for his actions are not yet known. (ANSA).