Italy is in shock after a mentally ill man killed two children, brothers who were out playing in a park, and an 84-year-old man in the coastal town of Ardea, near Rome, on Sunday.
The gunman then committed suicide in his home.
The elderly man, who was cycling, reportedly confronted the killer, who as in his 30s, as he was about to start shooting.
According to reports, the attacker used a gun that had belonged to his late father and had recently been released from a mental-health facility.
Carabinieri police said the only precious formal reports that they received in relation to the killer referred to an attack on his mother.
The dead boy's father was under house arrest for drugs charges.
A lawyer representing the family said the father did not know the killer and there had not been any rows between them.
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