VATICAN:In a disturbing incident that might have come straight out of the pages of Dan Brown's latest blockbuster, a 25-year-old member of the Vatican's elite internal police force died yesterday of gunshot wounds, the result of an apparent suicide, according to the Vatican.
A Vatican statement reported that Alessandro Benedetti was found at 7.30am yesterday in a bathroom in the barracks of the 150-member Gendarmes with a gunshot wound to the head. Benedetti was rushed to Rome's Santo Spirito hospital where he died at about 9am.
The Vatican statement issued by senior spokesman Father Federico Lombardi further explained: "The first indications are that the young man committed suicide. A note, found at the site of the shooting, is currently being examined by the Vatican's investigators, who are in charge of the case and who will also examine all the data from the autopsy requested by the Italian coroner's office.
"Young Benedetti joined the Gendarmes last April as a cadet, after the normal physiological testing, especially with regard to the use of arms. His behaviour had not given rise for concern. The Holy Father has learned of this news with great sorrow and entrusts the young Alessandro to the mercy of God." The statement added that Pope Benedict, who was not in the Vatican at the time but rather at his summer residence of Castelgandolfo, south of Rome, was praying for Benedetti and his family.
The Vatican statement offered no explanation as to motives for the suicide but Italian media yesterday suggested that Benedetti had recently broken up with his girlfriend.
The Vatican Gendarmes guard the Pope when he is in the Vatican and in conjunction with Italian police when he leaves Vatican City. The Gendarmes also patrol Vatican City, the Vatican Museums, St Peter's Basilica and other Vatican-owned buildings in Rome while they deal with any crime in Vatican City. Many of the Gendarmes dress in simple blue and crimson coloured uniforms, but many also work as a plainclothes police service.
It was a plainclothes gendarme who grabbed a disturbed German man last June in St Peter's Square when the man tried to jump onto Benedict's Popemobile.
The Gendarmes share Vatican law enforcement duties with the much better known Swiss Guards who, however, these days mix security detail with ceremonial duties. The most recent case of violence in the Vatican involved the Swiss Guards.
In 1998, 23-year-old Swiss Guard Cedric Tornay killed the guard commandant and his wife before shooting himself.
The Vatican has always claimed that Tornay was the victim of a "raptus di follia", a moment of total madness, prompted by his disappointment at not being promoted.
Cpl Tornay's mother, however, has always denied the Vatican's version of events, arguing that her son had been wrongly accused and was the victim of a plot.