Three killed as gunman opens fire in Italian court

Suspect in shooting at Milan’s Palace of Justice arrested after fleeing scene on motorbike

Women rush out of the court building in Milan. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP

Damien Gayle and agencies in Milan-Thursday 9 April 2015

A defendant in a bankruptcy trial opened fire in a Milan court on Thursday morning, killing a lawyer, a co-defendant and a judge.

The suspected gunman, named in Italian media as Claudio Giardiello, was arrested after fleeing the Palace of Justice on a motorbike on Thursday morning.

Police scoured the building for the suspect as officials and staff barricaded themselves inside their offices. He escaped but was arrested in Vimercate, 16 miles from Milan.

Italy’s interior minister, Angelino Alfano, confirmed the arrest of the “presumed assassin” in a tweet, and said the suspect was being held in police custody.

One of the dead was named as Fernando Ciampi, a judge who worked in the civil section of the bankruptcy court. Lorenzo Alberto Claris Appiani, a lawyer, and Giardiello’s co-defendant, Giorgio Erba, were also killed, Italian media reported.

Itay’s ANSA news agency reported that a fourth person had died but there were no signs they had been hit by a bullet, and may have had a heart attack during the incident. Another co-defendant and relative of Giardiello, Davide Limongelli, was reportedly injured.

Italian media said the gunman had opened fire on the third floor of the Palace of Justice, where he was on trial over the collapse of a business of which he was the majority shareholder.

A fight reportedly began in the courtroom during the cross-examination, at which point Giardiello is alleged to have pulled out a gun, killing Appiani and seriously wounding Erba.

He is said to have then fled the room and made his way to Ciampi’s office and fired again, killing the judge instantly. The newspaper La Repubblica said the gunman had remained hidden in the courthouse for more than an hour as armed police sealed off all exits and combed the building. He managed to leave the building and escape by motorcycle.

A lawyer, Marcello Ilia, told Agence France-Presse outside the court: “All of a sudden we heard at least three or four shots. We tried to find out what was going on. There were suddenly lots of police officers who told us not to leave the room, they shut us in.

“After a few minutes we came out. They told us someone in a suit and tie was armed and at large in the court.”

It was unclear how the gunman gained entrance, as visitors to the building have to pass through metal detectors. One theory is that he was waved through into the building with his lawyer, as officials do not have to comply with the stringent measures.

Gherardo Colombo, a judge, told journalists outside the court that he was “dazed and shocked” by the shootout. “I knew Judge Ciampi personally, it’s absurd that one can die like that, while you’re doing your job,” he said, suggesting “an anti-judiciary climate” may be to blame.

The Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, criticised the security breach that had apparently enabled the suspect to enter the court with a gun.

“The security systems of our country depend on women and men who are capable of heroism, but oversight cannot be allowed to have holes and breaches such as those which there were at the court in Milan. It must be established who messed up, how and why. Something did not work,” ANSA quoted him as saying.

Regional authorities were shocked that anyone had managed to get into the court building with a gun. “It’s disturbing that just anyone can get into the Palace of Justice armed,” said the head of the Lombardy region, Roberto Maroni.

“The fact that we’re not talking about an organisation which surveyed the place first makes it even more perturbing,” he said.

The Palace of Justice is in the historic centre of Milan, only a few streets away from the city’s cathedral and shopping district.