Cadet Vatican police force dies in apparent suicide
VATICAN CITY - A cadet in the Vatican police force was found fatally shot in the head early Monday inside the barracks in what officials said was an apparent suicide over a breakup with a girlfriend.
The incident rekindled memories of the 1998 murder-suicide behind the Vatican walls, in which a 23-year-old Swiss Guard allegedly killed his commander, the commander's wife and then himself over being denied a medal.
Colleagues found Alessandro Benedetti, 26, mortally wounded in the barracks bathroom Monday morning. He later died at a nearby hospital. Vatican officials said Benedetti was distraught over a recent breakup.
Pope Benedict XVI was saddened at the news and expressed solidarity with the man's family and the police corps, the statement said. The pope was not at the Vatican at the time; he was at the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, in the hills south of Rome.
Benedetti joined the Vatican police corps as a cadet in April, the statement said. He had taken psychological tests and his behavior so far had not raised any worries. Cadets generally do not protect the pope himself, but provide other law enforcement services around the Vatican, such as directing traffic and protecting entrances.
The Vatican police force, currently about 150-strong, protects the pope and other Vatican officials during public appearances, travel with the pope and deal with crimes inside the Vatican. It was a Vatican policeman who grabbed a German man who was trying to jump on Benedict's open popemobile during a weekly audience in June, in an episode that rekindled debate of the pontiff's security during his public appearances. (AP)
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